Scott Manley | USA Put A Nuclear Reactor In Space And Abandoned It - How Did It Work? @scottmanley | Uploaded 4 months ago | Updated 1 day ago
In the early days of the US Space program there was a parallel nuclear power program to develop the nuclear power technologies needed for spaceflight. The Space Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) program worked on both isotope decay generators and fully operational fission reactors. And while several spacecraft have been launched to other planets using radio isotope generators, the US only launched one fully operational test reactor - SNAP 10A which operated according to predictions from ground tests. Until the host spacecraft failed 40 days into the mission.

While the concept was proven, no mission could be matched to the capabilities and no other test reactors have been flown by the USA.

(The Soviet Union on the other hand flew several)

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