Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
After World War II, the United States quietly brought former Nazi rocket engineer Wernher von Braun to America, where he and his team helped lay the foundations of the U.S. space programme. But while von Braun’s rockets would carry astronauts to the Moon, they weren’t the cheapest propulsion concept on the table.
Nuclear-powered designs like Project Orion promised to propel spacecraft farther and faster for a fraction of the cost. So why weren’t they used?
Because, believe it or not, there are some drawbacks to detonating a string of nuclear bombs beneath your spacecraft - namely the risk of showering the atmosphere with radioactive fallout.
In the end, the political and environmental consequences proved harder to overcome than the engineering, and the Saturn V won out.
After World War II, the United States quietly brought former Nazi rocket engineer Wernher von Braun to America, where he and his team helped lay the foundations of the U.S. space programme. But while von Braun’s rockets would carry astronauts to the Moon, they weren’t the cheapest propulsion concept on the table.
Nuclear-powered designs like Project Orion promised to propel spacecraft farther and faster for a fraction of the cost. So why weren’t they used?
Because, believe it or not, there are some drawbacks to detonating a string of nuclear bombs beneath your spacecraft - namely the risk of showering the atmosphere with radioactive fallout.
In the end, the political and environmental consequences proved harder to overcome than the engineering, and the Saturn V won out.
