MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev, for RIA Novosti)...
President Dmitry Medvedev approved the project and promised to find funding for it. Analysts say Russia could restore its status as a leading space power if it scores a breakthrough with nuclear propulsion.
Past experience shows that such expensive technology is extremely difficult to develop. The United States and the Soviet Union tried hard to make commercial nuclear propulsion units. The U.S.S.R. came up with the 11B91 experimental nuclear engine, while the U.S. developed the NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) system developing a thrust of about four tons.
Soviet and U.S. nuclear spacecraft programs were marred by a number of accidents.
In April 1964, a U.S. Navy Transit navigation satellite with a radio-isotopic generator onboard failed to reach orbit and disintegrated in the atmosphere, spewing out over 950 grams of plutonium-238. This was more than the total amount of plutonium released during all nuclear explosions by 1964.