PROJECT ROVER: A STUDY OF THE NUCLEAR ROCKET DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, 1953 - 1963

The idea to use atomic or nuclear energy to propel a rocket in space existed for over 40 years before decisions were made to develop a nuclear rocket. This idea was most fanciful during the period from 1900-1945 because the sciences of the atom and the rocket were in their infancy. The development of the atomic bomb and the German V-2 rocket during World War II prepared the way for the serious post-war thought of marrying the two sciences to produce a rocket capable of navigating through space. It took the Cold War, however, to spur the decision in the United States to establish a nuclear rocket program; it took the inception of the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union to give that program its focus and direction. In short, the United States began a nuclear rocket program for national security reasons.;In 1961, President Kennedy believed that Soviet space achievements were a threat to the nation's security and decided to establish a comprehensive space policy. The policy was premised on the belief that the U.S. had to surpass the Soviets not only in the 1960's but also in the 1970's and 1980's and featured the manned lunar landing as the principal program for the 1960's and the nuclear rocket as the principal development program to permit the U.S. to surpass the Soviets in the 1970's and 1980's. That goal was criticized by Executive office personnel in 1962 and 1963 because they believed the nuclear rocket would be very costly to develop and most costly to use. Their view prevailed; the nuclear rocket program was reoriented to a basic technology development effort and the all-encompassing space policy was abbreviated to the lunar-landing program.;Had a reorientation not occurred, national security ultimately would have been diminished because making a nuclear rocket system operational would involve tremendous expense and using it would involve prodigious expense. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI.;The program began in 1954 as a concept to be investigated for use as a backup delivery system for the Atlas missile. The Los Alamos Scientific and Livermore Radiation Laboratories, however, advocated developing the system for operational military use; the Department of Defense stated in 1957 that no military need existed, but that the program should be continued for future space applications. Continuing Soviet space successes in the late 1950's resulted in Congressional Democratic efforts to accelerate the program; the nuclear rocket was justified as being the technology capable of giving the United States a rocket vehicle able to surpass the Soviets--if it were developed.