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Jeff Bezos & Nuclear Powered Spacecrafts

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Bezos' Blue Origin Wins DARPA/Pentagon Contract for Nuclear Spacecraft                                             Source:  Blue Origin                                     Source:  DARPA Nuclear Powered Spacecraft Nuclear Powered Trips to Space Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' aerospace company Blue Origin has won a US Department of Defense contract to design a nuclear powered spacecraft.  The $2.5 million contract was awarded by the Pentagon's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) as part of its DRACO program (Designated Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations).  Lockheed Martin and General Atomics were awarded similar contracts for the DRACO program. Nuclear Thermal Propulsion The DARPA program is focused on developing and testing nuclear thermal propulsion technology to power space travel.  The technology utilizes a small nuclear reactor inside the rocket to heat up the liquid fuel and propel the spacecraft beyond low Earth orbit into deep space.  DARPA believes that