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Project Orion

Everything Everywhere Daily

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The History of Nuclear Pulse Propulsion

The idea of using an atomic bomb to launch something into space was not what Ulam was thinking. The idea floated around for years, and in 1958 it was picked up by the physicist Ted Taylor who worked for General Atomics. Project Orion had to think about how to turn this from a theoretical idea into something that could actually work. A nuclear explosion wasn't any different than a chemical explosion. It was just bigger.

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