BWX Technologies Space

BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT) stands at the forefront of nuclear technology development for space exploration, playing a pivotal role in NASA's ambitious plans to revolutionize deep space propulsion. Headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia, the company brings decades of expertise in nuclear reactor design and manufacturing to the emerging field of space nuclear propulsion.

BWXT was to build the reactor for DARPA's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO), a nuclear thermal propulsion demonstrator with Lockheed Martin, but the flight was put on hold in January 2025, NASA zeroed its share of the funding that May, and DARPA confirmed the programme had ended in June 2025. Under a contract worth approximately $200 million over three years, BWXT is responsible for designing the nuclear reactor, manufacturing the hardware and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel, and delivering the complete fueled reactor subsystem.

Nuclear thermal propulsion offers thrust-to-weight ratios 10,000 times greater than electric propulsion and specific impulse two to five times greater than chemical rockets.

In March 2025, BWXT opened its Innovation Campus, a 170,000 square-foot facility dedicated to advancing nuclear technologies for land, sea, and space applications. This campus houses the Advanced Technologies business unit and over 350 team members working on cutting-edge nuclear systems for NASA, the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and commercial applications. The company has been involved with NASA's Nuclear Thermal Propulsion design since 2017, establishing itself as a leading U.S. entity capable of producing space-grade nuclear reactors.