SLAM

The big explosion in Russia last week is thought to have been a nuclear-powered rocket. The US developed one in the early Cold War, but never tested it.
SLAM was never built because it was too dangerous to even test. The dangerous levels of radioactivity unleashed by the nuclear engine was a big plus in some apocalyptic wartime scenario, but it couldn't even be tested in the skies over the U.S. SLAM was also overtaken by intercontinental ballistic missile development, which could deliver a thermonuclear warhead against a target in Russia in half an hour.
I did just read an article suggesting that similar rockets could be used in space, though, to allow transit around the solar system in a reasonable period of time. Here's another article on the subject of why such rockets offer advantages over traditional designs.

1 comment:

ymarsakar said...

They tested plenty of thermo mega ton nukes in Operation Dominus and Fishbowl. The various layers of the onion secrecy ring is not necessarily consistent.


There are all kinds of secrets and classification levels to nuclear weapons, that I don't have access to. Surprisingly enough, some governments rank UFO stuff higher than strategic nuclear information, which sounds about right given Operation Paperclip's output.