Northrop to Help NASA Design Nuclear Craft
From Associated Press
Northrop Grumman Space Technology has been selected to help NASA design a nuclear-powered spacecraft to orbit and explore three moons of Jupiter that may have oceans beneath their icy surfaces.
The $400-million contract with the Redondo Beach-based unit of Northrop Grumman Corp. covers work through mid-2008, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.
It would be the first NASA mission to use nuclear electric propulsion, in which a reactor provides power to generate electricity for engines that expel electrically charged particles called ions to provide thrust.
