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takyon writes:

An ex-SpaceX engineer has a design for a nuclear-powered rocket that could beat SpaceX's BFR on $/kg and many other aspects:

John Bucknell says the nuclear turbo rocket technology and his designs are ready for development. The air-breathing nuclear thermal rocket will enable 7 times more payload fraction to be delivered to low-earth orbit and it will have 6 times the ISP (rocket fuel efficiency) as chemical rockets. The rocket will have two to three times the speed and performance of chemical rockets for missions outside of the atmosphere. [...] Besides being cheaper and vastly higher performing that the SpaceX BFR, the Bucknell Nuclear turbo rocket will to do things which the SpaceX BFR cannot.

Bucknell's proposed air-breathing nuclear thermal rocket propulsion cycle called the Nuclear Thermal Turbo Rocket (NTTR) improves payload fraction to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) by a factor of 5-7 relative to State of the Art chemical rockets.

Mission Average Specific Impulse: 1430 to 1788 sec (About 5-6 times better than 350-400 ISP chemical rockets)

The Nuclear Thermal Turbo Rocket (NTTR) is a supercharged air-augmented nuclear thermal combined cycle rocket architecture. Nuclear turbo rockets already offer the highest Specific Impulse (Isp) of launch-capable pure rocket propulsion systems, whereas launch to hypersonic turbine combined cycle systems offer far higher Isp. The NTTR combines both modes.

Also at Ars Technica.

See also: John Bucknell designer of the Nuclear Thermal Turbo Rocket is answering questions
Turbo Rocket Economics are $85/kg to LEO or $715/kg to Luna

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