Four years from now, if all goes well, a nuclear-powered rocket engine will launch into space for the first time. The rocket itself will be conventional, but the payload boosted into orbit will be a different matter.
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Sounds risky AF
- If the rocket explodes, nuclear fuel could fall back to earth
- If not de-orbited properly, the nuclear fuel could end up scattered across a country - This already happened… multiple times… in 1973 1977, 1983
- If something goes wrong in orbit, now we have radioactive space junk… numerous accidents have already happened many times
As with any technological advancement , there are risks, but if humanity is ever intending to become a spacefairing species, we will have to make peace with nuclear energy. It’s the only technology that comes anywhere close to making interplanetary travel feasible at large scale.
ah yes, instead of using nuclear energy to power countries, we’re shooting the fuel into space