The contract was awarded to Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space company.
DARPA wants to maneuver faster in space. The research agency of the US Department of Defense has awarded a contract for this.
We are looking for a nuclear thermal machine including a spacecraft that will be tested in orbit in 2025.
General Atomics will build the reactor and propulsion system. Defense company Lockheed Martin is supposed to design the spacecraft. At the same time, Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, will design a spaceship, the Telegraph reports.
General Atomics will receive $22.2 million from DARPA for this. Lockheed Martin gets $2.9 million, Blue Origin $2.5 million.
The spacecraft development program is called DRACO (Rocket Demonstration for Agile Cislunar Operations).
According to DARPA, the goal is to develop a spacecraft that can maneuver in sublunar space (between the earth and the moon) as fast as military vehicles on land, air and water.
A nuclear thermal engine could massively advance space exploration and shorten travel time to Mars.
However, since the project comes from DARPA and the spacecraft is intended for rapid maneuvering in sub-lunar space, a combat purpose seems more likely. It is possible that such a spacecraft could attack or defend satellites. /Telegrafi/
