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NASA Chooses Lockheed Martin To Build Nuclear Mars Rocket

The spacecraft will use a reactor from BWX Technologies to travel to the red planet.

Published

3 years ago

July 27, 2023

Nour Nasir

Lockheed Martin

NASA and DARPA have chosen Lockheed Martin to build a spacecraft featuring a nuclear rocket engine. The project is known as the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO), and should be ready for trials by 2027, in the hope that it will eventually be used for missions to Mars.

The rocket will use Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), which has several advantages over conventional chemical-powered engines. Nuclear power is up to five times more efficient than rocket fuel, which means that future spacecraft will be able to travel significantly further with a larger payload.

“These more powerful and efficient nuclear thermal propulsion systems can provide faster transit times between destinations,” explained Kirk Shireman, VP of Lunar Exploration Campaigns for Lockheed Martin. “Reducing transit time is vital for human missions to Mars to limit a crew’s exposure to radiation”.

lockheed martin mars rocket

The NTP system will use a nuclear reactor to rapidly heat hydrogen propellant to very high temperatures. The gas is then funneled through the engine’s nozzle, creating thrust. “This nuclear thermal propulsion system is designed to be extremely safe and reliable, using High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel to rapidly heat a super-cold gas,” explained reactor developers BWX Technologies. “As the gas is heated, it expands quickly and creates thrust to move the spacecraft more efficiently than typical chemical combustion engines”.

Also Read: Take A Balloon Journey To Space, Complete With Fine Dining!

To help alleviate concerns about radioactive leaks, NASA and DARPA will use a conventional rocket to take the new spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit before powering up the reactor after the ship has reached a safe distance.

Related Topics:Lockheed Martin NASA Space

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Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.