July 20, Thursday.
America's Senate passed the Pentagon's proposal to launch research into the future nuclear-powered space platform, also known as the FATS project. Several companies, including NACA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Company, Bell Labs, and Northrop Grumman, were involved.
The acronym FATS just happens to be the plural form of the word "fat," hence the FATS project is also known as the "Fat Man" project.
The first batch of the FATS budget would invest 3 billion US Dollars, its content being to first build a nuclear-powered engine that was fuel-efficient with a huge power generation capacity, and then to modify a space shuttle for testing.
That's right, modify. A newly-built space shuttle would be more advanced and complex, demanding more time to construct, at least three years.
