Space rockets may soon use nuclear-powered engines based on nuclear thermal propulsion, or NTP technology. While no nuclear engine will fly this year, the field is approaching a major milestone, with ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Every year, companies and space agencies launch hundreds of rockets ...

NASA just tested a blazing-hot plasma engine that could help carry humans to Mars.

A prototype ion engine that uses lithium vapor as a propellant has aced its first tests, achieving 25 times more power than ...

NASA fired up a prototype of its electromagnetic thruster inside a vacuum chamber, reaching power levels of up to 120 ...

With NASA’s Artemis II—the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years—successfully completed, attention is now turning to what’s next: establishing an enduring presence on the moon. Through a ...

A powerful new electromagnetic thruster has taken a major step forward after a successful high-energy test at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Fueled by lithium vapor and driven by intense magnetic ...

Electric propulsion is increasingly looking like the technology that will underlie a first attempt to walk on the Red Planet.

A century after Robert Goddard’s first-ever launch of a liquid-fueled rocket, two NASA experts weigh in on what his legacy still holds for spaceflight’s future Before that moment among the cabbages, ...