Vivienne Machi is the military space editor for Aviation Week. She has written about U.S. and international military and space tech for nearly a decade from Los Angeles, Washington and Stuttgart, Germany. Her byline has appeared in outlets including Defense News, Via Satellite, Foreign Policy, Defense Daily, National Defense Magazine and Business Insider.
Sixty-one years after the U.S. launched its first and only reactor into orbit, space nuclear power and propulsion now appear central to U.S. space superiority.
When the U.S. Space Force recently announced it had awarded nine base contracts for one of its marquee new programs, it opted to disclose only one provider: SpaceX.
