Nuclear Rocket by 2027 ?

[Beyond Knowledge]

Those engines only eliminate the oxyidizer, they still require fuel to throw out the back of the rocket to work. Instead of burning the mix, the atomic pile just superheats it.Yes, that means you can carry more hydrogen in place of the oxygen but you still run out of fuel and you need some of the oxygen to breath. Also the hydrogen is a major problem with chemical rockets. It being the smallest atom, hydrogen is very hard to contain. 

This is a website dedicated to making better science fiction but it also applies to real rocket designs.It goes into the hard science of atomic rockets and everything thatbgoes along with them. 

https://projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/