The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) was a roughly two-decade-

long nuclear thermal rocket engine development programme. Its primary objective was to
"establish a technology base for nuclear rocket engine systems to be used in the design and
development of space mission propulsion systems." The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) collaborated on the NERVA
programme, which was managed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) until
January 1973. NASA's Harold Finger and AEC's Milton Klein led SNPO. NERVA originated
from Project Rover, an AEC research project at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
(LASL) with the initial goal of developing a nuclear-powered upper stage for intercontinental
ballistic missiles of the United States Air Force. It was anticipated that nuclear rocket engines
would be more efficient than chemical ones. After the establishment of NASA in 1958,
Project Rover was redirected to produce a nuclear-powered upper stage for the Saturn V
Moon rocket. Before being shipped to the Jackass Flats Test Site in Nevada, reactors were
tested at very low power. While LASL focused on the development of reactors, NASA
constructed and tested complete rocket engines. NERVA was deemed a highly successful
programme by the AEC, SNPO, and NASA because it met or exceeded its programme
objectives. NERVA demonstrated that nuclear thermal rocket engines were a viable and
dependable tool for space exploration, and by the end of 1968, SNPO determined that the
most recent NERVA engine, the XE, fulfilled the requirements for a human mission to Mars.
Senators Clinton P. Anderson and Margaret Chase Smith supported it politically, but
President Richard Nixon cancelled it in 1973. Although NERVA engines were constructed
and tested with as many flight-certified components as possible and were deemed ready to be
integrated into a spacecraft, they were never used in space.