Sandra Erwin has an article for Spacenews, which somebody stuck with the unfortunate headline "to develop nuclear reactor to power missions to the moon". I've been blogging long enough to know that Erwin is likely palming her OWN forehead at the stupid headline foisted upon her work.
The subject is a Demonstation of a Rocket, between here and our own Moon: "agile cislunar operations". So, DRACO. WAKE THE DRAGON! Because it's a NTR using fiery NTP. I do say, that is pretty awesome. They're looking at a 2025 prototype which is even more awesome because I'd been anticipating 2027.
What this is not, however: is a mission to the moon. It is an experiment with a slate of manoeuvres to validate the NERVA, which experiments they need to conduct between here and the moon, because it's ... drrrr.... physically closer to the Earth-based lab.
HYPE 4/21: Green, Reynolds. Pretty much the same story repoasted, except that now Blue Origin is in it too.
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