By Charlotte Webster-
The Pentagon on Monday awarded Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, a $2.5 million contract to design a nuclear-powered spacecraft.
The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) agency also chose Lockheed Martin and General Atomics for the first phase of a program to design and build the spacecraft, it said in a statement.
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Lockheed Martin got a $2.9 million contract to design a craft for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program, and General Atomics a $22.2 million one to design a small nuclear reactor to power a rocket, CNBC reported.
Rockets are usually powered by chemical or electrical-based systems. The agency said both have “drawbacks” and that nuclear propulsion tech could have benefits of both: the power of chemical-based and the efficiency of electrical-based.
The last test launched by the company was its 14th sub-orbital flight with a fourth-generation New Shepard capsule called NS4. During the test, a New Shepard booster reached a maximum velocity of over 2,000 mph in about 2.5 minutes after liftoff and separated from the crew capsule mid-air.
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The capsule then soared to an altitude of 107 km (66 miles), well exceeding the standards of the lower boundary of space. Both the booster and the capsule successfully returned to Earth with a soft landing
First Phase Of Draco Program
The three contractors will implement the first phase of the DRACO program over the course of 18 months, divided into two Tracks.
For Track A, General Atomics will be in charge of designing the NTP reactor concept. Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin will take over Track B, when the nuclear spacecraft design is set to be completed. The two aerospace manufacturers will participate in designing an Operational System spacecraft concept and a Demonstration System spacecraft concept.
Once the first phase in the DARCO program is completed, DARPA’s goal is to launch an on-orbit demonstration rocket and test the new system in the space between Earth and the Moon. If successful, the nuclear thermal propulsion system could change what is now possible in terms of space travel speed.
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