Project Orion was the first engineering design study of a spacecraft powered by nuclear pulse propulsion, an idea first proposed by Stanisław Ulam in 1947.By using energetic nuclear power, Orion offered both high thrust and high specific impulse -- the holy grail of spacecraft propulsion. It offered performance greater than the most advanced conventional or nuclear rocket engines now under study, with the goal of cheaper interplanetary travel. Its supporters felt that it had great potential for space travel, but it lost political approval because of concerns with fallout from its propulsion. The Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 is generally acknowledged to have ended the project.
In the following video, author George Dyson spins the story of Project Orion, the massive, nuclear-powered spacecraft that could have taken us to Saturn in five years. His insider’s perspective and a secret cache of documents bring an Atomic Age dream to life.
Nuclear Propulsion
There has got to be a more efficient way to direct the force from a nuclear detonation into rocket thrust than this and there are actually a range of nuclear rocket programs to gain information from such as Dumbo, KIWI, Orion, Deadalus, Prometheus (nuclear powered ion rocket), Longshot, and AIMstar.