Nasa bets big on nuclear engines to cut journey times to Mars

Nasa bets big on nuclear engines to cut journey times to Mars

The technology could make it easier to send both humans and cargo to the red planet.

NASA wants to fly a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars before 2028 ends, and the real test is whether Jared Isaacman can push the agency past its 60-year nuclear-space stall

NASA says it will launch a nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft to Mars before the end of 2028, a deadline that would move space nuclear propulsion out of the study-and-test world and into flight hardware faster than many people in the industry would have expected. The mission is called Space Reactor-1 Freedom. NASA describes it as the first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft, designed to demonstrate nuclear electric propulsion in de…