SPACE ART: The Return

first-lunar-outpost-nuclear-thermal-rocket

(Above) Pushed by three 25,000-pound thrust nuclear thermal rocket engines, a NASA First Lunar Outpost piloted lander atop a 10-meter-diameter stage leaves Earth orbit for the Moon. This nuclear stage is the advanced technology base for eventual reusable lunar transfer vehicles and subsequent human voyages to Mars. This artwork was done for NASA by Pat Rawlings.

First Lunar Outpost was a NASA plan to return to the Moon after the collapse of the 1989 Space Exploration Initiative.