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US military eyes nuclear thermal rocket for missions in Earth-moon space - Space.com

US military eyes nuclear thermal rocket for missions in Earth-moon space - Space.com

US military eyes nuclear thermal rocket for missions in Earth-moon space - Space.com
Sep 30, 2020 52 secs

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) just awarded a $14 million task order to Gryphon Technologies, a company in Washington, D.C., that provides engineering and technical solutions to national security organizations.

The money will support DARPA's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program, whose main goal is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system in Earth orbit. .

Such improvements in propulsion technology are needed for "maintaining space domain awareness in cislunar space — the volume of space between the Earth and the moon," the DRACO description reads.

"We are proud to support DRACO and the development and demonstration of NTP, a significant technological advancement in efforts to achieve cislunar space awareness," Gryphon CEO P.J.

"That is absolutely a game-changer for what NASA is trying to achieve," Bridenstine said during a meeting of the National Space Council last year.

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