Chemically propelled rockets can lift less than 5 percent of their take-off weight into orbit, a fact that could forever limit the space program. Nuclear-powered rockets, however, with their superior thrusting power and speed, are radically different. So argues James A. Dewar in the only comprehensive history ever written of the nuclear rocket project. It is a story of political battles over the space program's future, involving Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, and a readable account of its technical successes, a story perhaps more interesting and certainly more important, Dewar believes, than the history of atomic and H-bomb development. Dewar maintains that only by reestablishing a nuclear rocket project can the nation have a space program worthy of the 21st century, one that makes reality of the hopes and dreams of science fiction.
- ISBN10 0813122678
- ISBN13 9780813122670
- Publish Date 1 July 2003
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 2 October 2008
- Publish Country US
- Imprint The University Press of Kentucky
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English