page_title: NERVA
section_title: Transfer to NASA
hierarchical_section_title: NERVA / Organization / Transfer to NASA
caption_attribution_description: English: Nevada Test Site - Nuclear Rocket Development Station. President John F. Kennedy visits the Nuclear Rocket Developement Station on December 8, 1962.
context_page_description: The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application was a nuclear thermal rocket engine development program that ran for roughly two decades. Its principal objective was to "establish a technology base for nuclear rocket engine systems to be utilized in the design and development of propulsion systems for space mission application". NERVA was a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and was managed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office until the program ended in January 1973. SNPO was led by NASA's Harold Finger and AEC's Milton Klein.
  NERVA had its origins in Project Rover, an AEC research project at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory with the initial aim of providing a nuclear-powered upper stage for the United States Air Force intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are more powerful than chemical engines. After the formation of NASA in 1958, Project Rover was continued as a civilian project and was reoriented to producing a nuclear powered upper stage for NASA's Saturn V Moon rocket. Reactors were tested at very low power before being shipped to Jackass Flats in the Nevada Test Site.
context_section_description: By 1957, the Atlas missile project was proceeding well, and the need for a nuclear upper stage had all but disappeared. On 2 October 1957, the AEC proposed cutting its budget. Two days later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This surprise success fired fears and imaginations around the world. It demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, and contested cherished American notions of military, economic and technological superiority.  This precipitated the Sputnik crisis, and triggered the Space Race. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded to by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which absorbed the NACA.
  NACA had long been interested in nuclear technology. In 1951, it had begun exploring the possibility of acquiring its own nuclear reactor for the aircraft nuclear propulsion (ANP) project, and selected its Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Ohio to design, build and manage it. A site was chosen at the nearby Plum Brook Ordnance Works, NACA obtained approval from the AEC, and construction of the Plum Brook Reactor commenced in September 1956. Abe Silverstein, the director of Lewis, was particularly eager to acquire control of Project Rover.
  Donald A. Quarles, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, met with T. Keith Glennan, the new administrator of NASA, and Hugh Dryden, Glennan's deputy on 20 August 1958, the day they after Glennan and Dryden were sworn into office at the White House, and Rover was the first item on the agenda. Quarles was eager to transfer Rover to NASA, as the project no longer had a military purpose. Responsibility for the non-nuclear components of Project Rover was officially transferred from the United States Air Force (USAF) to NASA on 1 October 1958, the day NASA officially became operational and assumed responsibility for the US civilian space program.
caption: President John F. Kennedy (right) visits the Nuclear Rocket Development Station on 8 December 1962 with Harold Finger (left) and Glenn Seaborg (behind)
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