Kratos has announced a $33.6 million contract to provide a power-conversion system for NASA’s SR-1 Freedom nuclear-powered spacecraft. The October 28, 2026, announcement identifies Kratos as a subcontractor to Sierra Lobo.
The system will convert heat from the spacecraft’s reactor into electricity. That electricity will support electric propulsion and onboard systems, making power conversion a separate engineering function from both the reactor that produces heat and the thrusters that use electrical power.
Turning Reactor Heat Into Electricity
Kratos’s work involves a closed Brayton-cycle power-conversion system. In this type of system, a working gas circulates through a closed loop. Heat supplied to the gas enables machinery to extract mechanical power, which a generator converts into electricity.
The gas remains within the conversion circuit rather than being expelled as rocket exhaust. The spacecraft’s electric thrusters use a separate propulsion process.
NASA’s space nuclear propulsion overview distinguishes nuclear electric propulsion from nuclear thermal propulsion. A nuclear electric system generates electricity for electric thrusters. A nuclear thermal system transfers reactor heat directly to propellant before expelling it through a nozzle.
That distinction explains the role of Kratos’s equipment: it supplies the electrical output needed between the reactor and the spacecraft’s electrically powered loads.
A Defined Role Within the Mission
The company describes SR-1 Freedom as targeting a 2028 launch and a Mars-bound delivery associated with SkyFall. These remain announced mission plans.
The contract covers the power-conversion contribution rather than the entire spacecraft. Its performance must fit the spacecraft’s electrical requirements and its thermal design, because heat that is not converted into electricity must still be removed.
The assignment is part of the broader range of spacecraft propulsion technologies, but its specific purpose is to turn reactor heat into usable electrical power for SR-1 Freedom.
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