---
title: "DARPA Is Planning to Launch a Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft"
description: "DARPA plans to send a nuclear-powered rocket into orbit by 2025. It can't get there on its own, but once it's in space it could make Mars trips much faster."
date: "2021-04-12"
modified: "2021-04-12"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/darpa-nuclear-powered-spacecraft"
categories:
  - "DARPA"
  - "Military"
  - "Off-World"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "DARPA"
  - "nuclear rocket"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# DARPA Is Planning to Launch a Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft

![DARPA plans to send a nuclear-powered rocket into orbit by 2025. It can't get there on its own, but once it's in space it could make Mars trips much faster.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/darpa.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: DARPA / Futurism\</em\>*

## Blasting Off

DARPA, the Pentagon's research division, has plans to send a spacecraft powered by a nuclear reactor into orbit as soon as 2025.

It's an ambitious project, not only because it involves new propulsion technology, *[New Scientist ](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2274199-the-us-plans-to-put-a-nuclear-powered-rocket-in-orbit-by-2025/>)*[reports](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2274199-the-us-plans-to-put-a-nuclear-powered-rocket-in-orbit-by-2025/>), but because engineers don't actually think the rocket will be powerful enough to escape the Earth's gravitational pull. Instead, the nuclear rocket would get a piggyback ride into orbit, from which it can propel itself to a secondary destination.

## Orbital Outpost

It sounds almost comical to put so much emphasis on a rocket that can't make its own way into space, but that's not really the point. Instead, the nuclear thermal space propulsion (NTP) tech would make spacecraft and satellites that are already in orbit easier to maneuver and reposition.

"In the air, on the ground, and at sea, maneuverability is a critical capability," DARPA project manager Nathan Greiner told *New Scientist*. "Nuclear thermal propulsion will give us that agility in space."

## Fast Travel

A successful NTP system would also make it easier to [quickly reach the Moon](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/darpa-nuclear-rocket-moon-missions>) or Mars, which would make settling or at least establishing long-term research outposts on other worlds [much more feasible](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-develop-nuclear-rockets>) and [safer for astronauts](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-nuclear-propulsion-game-changer>) who would be exposed to dangerous cosmic rays during the journey.

Of course, DARPA actually needs to get the nuclear-powered rocket into space before it can help with any of that. And while launching a nuclear reactor into the atmosphere sounds risky, *New Scientist* reports that the low-enriched uranium is actually safer than the plutonium that's currently powering NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars.

**READ MORE:** [The US plans to put a nuclear-powered rocket in orbit by 2025](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2274199-the-us-plans-to-put-a-nuclear-powered-rocket-in-orbit-by-2025/>) \[*New Scientist*\]

**More on nuclear rockets:** *[DARPA Is Considering a Nuclear Rocket for Moon Missions](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/darpa-nuclear-rocket-moon-missions>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)