heroicrelics.org
Return to U.S. Space and Rocket Center

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 to temperatures up to 4,250°R (3,790°F) in this way, affording a nominal specific impulse of 825 sec. (by comparison, the J-2 had a vacuum Isp of 421 sec and the SSME 452). The NERVA on display is just the engine proper; a large nozzle extension would have been bolted onto the engine to properly expand the heated gases.

For a relatively short-lived program and a rocket engine which never flew, there is a good deal of information regarding the NERVA available on the Web:

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

This appears to be the NERVA XE'' engine. It was removed from the USSRC's Rocket Park some time between June 2004 and June 2005. This was shortly after I started visiting the USSRC, and since it never flew, I took very few photos of it at the time (although it did appear in the background of a number of photos I took of other artifacts; I present those here as well).

However, it eventually was moved to Building 4205 at Marshall Space Flight Center, apparently some time after F-1 engine F-4023 was erected there in October 2009.

 
dsc03442.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc03442.jpg
dsc03443.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc03443.jpg
dsc00301.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc00301.jpg
dsc00574.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc00574.jpg
dsc03355.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc03355.jpg
dsc00180.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc00180.jpg
dsc00182.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc00182.jpg
dsc01492.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc01492.jpg
dsc01621.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc01621.jpg
dsc01491.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc01491.jpg
dsc00400.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc00400.jpg
dsc00251.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc00251.jpg
dsc06769.jpg at U.S. Space and Rocket Center
dsc06769.jpg
     
Return to U.S. Space and Rocket Center