NERVA Engine

The NERVA was an experimental nuclear engine (NERVA is an acronym for Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications). Rather than any sort of combustion as in an ordinary rocket engine, the NERVA operated by running hydrogen through a nuclear reactor, heating the gas in this way.

Since NERVA was to be used for a manned Mars mission, NERVA was cancelled when funding for the space program in general and a Mars mission in particular was cut in the early 1970s.

This appears to be the NERVA XE'' engine. It is displayed in front of Building 4205. This engine was previously displayed in the U.S. Space & Rocket Center's Rocket Park since before my first visit in 2002 until some time between June 2004 and June 2005. It was apparently moved here some time after F-1 engine F-4023 was erected there in October 2009.

I visited the NERVA at MSFC three times, in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Sometime between September 2013 and September 2014, the engine's nozzle had been removed. I've not visited since, and the most recent photo of the engine I've been able to find on the Internet (April 2016) shows that the nozzle was still absent at that time.

Aerial view.