NASA's nuclear-powered mission to Mars is taking shape with the selection of Firefly Aerospace to design and manufacture the protective aeroshell that will shield the Skyfall spacecraft's descent stage during its plummet through the Martian atmosphere.
Skyfall, slated to be NASA's first-ever nuclear powered interplanetary probe, is scheduled to launch in 2028 with three helicopters similar to the Ingenuity drone that landed on the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover. The mission is being managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in California, which just awarded Firefly a $13 million subcontract for the spacecraft component.
