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Nuclear propulsion efforts like the DARPA-funded DRACO program enjoy rare bipartisan support in Washington.
Over the past half-century, the U.S. government has introduced more than 20 efforts to harness nuclear power and propulsion for space operations—only to cancel all of them. Eric Brown, vice president of mission strategy and advanced capabilities at Lockheed Martin Space, hopes to break that streak.
Space-faring nations and commercial industry want to perform missions beyond geostationary orbit—into cislunar space and beyond. That will require considerably more powerful energy sources. “This time around, it’s absolutely crucial that we see the success of nuclear power and propulsion,” Brown told reporters in November at Lockheed Martin’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
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Nuclear power’s promise lies in its energy density. One gummy-bear-size piece of uranium-235 possesses about the same amount of energy as one train car of coal, 500 barrels of oil or 1.6 Saturn V upper stages, according to nuclear fuel and components supplier BWX Technologies.
U.S. military spacecraft need such a powerful resource to “maneuver without regret,” says U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) John Shaw, who was U.S. Space Command deputy commander in 2020-23. It is also what makes nuclear power “absolutely crucial” for both national security missions and exploration, Brown said.
“Right now, we’re basically hamstrung when we design a lot of these exploration missions by various orbital dynamics and the availability of fuel,” Brown said. Nuclear-powered spacecraft will enable safer flight, with more opportunities to abort the mission if something goes wrong, and allow for greater maneuverability, he said.
Once deployed, nuclear propulsion technology can be applied across a range of mission areas, from human space exploration to in-space debris removal and dynamic space operations.
Lockheed Martin and BWX Technologies are strategic partners for several U.S. government programs that seek to harness nuclear thermal and electric propulsion for civil space missions that could be viable for national security space missions as well.
The DARPA-funded Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program aims to showcase the viability of a nuclear thermal rocket in orbit, with an expected launch date in 2027.
On the nuclear electric propulsion side, the Air Force Research Laboratory contracted Lockheed Martin for the Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-Orbit Nuclear High Power program to explore relevant technologies and spacecraft design. Meanwhile, NASA’s Fission Surface Power program seeks to develop a miniaturized reactor that can fuel systems operating on the Moon.
For Brown, this trifecta of programs offers “a greater jump” toward nuclear propulsion than ever before, buoyed by consistent U.S. government funding and vocal support from members of Congress.
“I think we’re in a really good place, particularly because it’s not all dependent on a single line item in order to reach success,” he said. “It’s the collection of these three programs together that’s giving it greater energy and emphasis.”
Nuclear propulsion efforts enjoy rare bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. The Senate Appropriations Committee expressed support for the DRACO program in July in its fiscal 2025 appropriations bill report.
However, lawmakers called the currently envisioned demonstration system insufficient to outperform existing propulsion technologies. They recommended providing $115 million to fund nuclear thermal systems—$15 million of which would be to build another operational system with commercial partners “concurrently with DRACO” for deep space science and future cislunar space missions. The committee also included a separate $10 million for NASA to establish a center of excellence to advance nuclear propulsion research.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20 may give another boost to nuclear propulsion investments. Throughout his first term, Trump issued multiple memoranda aimed at reinvigorating the nuclear energy sector. In August 2019, he signed National Security Presidential Memorandum-20, which supported development and use of nuclear systems for space exploration and operational missions.
In the final days of his first term, Trump also signed an executive order promoting small modular reactors for national defense and space exploration that called for the U.S. to build a viable domestic supply of high-assay low-enriched uranium, the energy source required to power advanced reactors.
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