Did NASA actually launch a nuclear spacecraft in 1973?
During a critical phase of the Cold War, NASA launches a mission which culminates decades of clandestine development of a nuclear pulse-driven spacecraft—a super-rocket propelled by atom bomb explosions. Held back by the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Orion is revived in secret and launched in 1973 under the guise of a Skylab supply mission.
What really happened to the mission described as “the worse disaster in the history of NASA”? What role was played by the pilot Jack Trew, vilified as “the Herostratus of the American space program”? Who were the personalities behind the ill-starred Orion Project? Perhaps most of all, what are the values in the name of which we reach for the Moon and, in the near future, Mars?
"Peter Swirski’s masterpiece will make you wonder whether our national and scientific establishments should be updated as humanity plans to become a multi-planet civilization."
- Avi Loeb, Professor of Science at Harvard University and bestselling author of the books Extraterrestrial and Interstellar
"Philosophical space race thriller with pensive reflections on humanity’s ambitions… The Orion Project critiques not just the space race, but all structures that prioritize ambition over accountability, ultimately questioning whether humanity will ever be ethically ready to expand beyond Earth."
- Booklife / Publishers Weekly
"A brilliantly narrated political novel…"
- Kirkus Reviews
