Note: this video was produced before Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969. NASA and the (then) Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began work on the design of nuclear propulsion systems in the mid-1950s.

https://youtu.be/eDNX65d-FBY

Everything old is new again …

https://www.bwxt.com/what-we-do/nuclear-thermal-propulsion-ntp

https://www.bwxt.com/news/2017/08/02/BWXT-Awarded-188-Million-Nuclear-Thermal-Propulsion-Reactor-Design-Contract-by-NASA