“‘I think there is absolutely no doubt — and we did some experiments later; still quasi-classified, related to Casaba-Howitzer — that the propulsion system would have worked. We knew what we were doing in designing it. We could send 85 percent of the momentum in one direction that we wanted it to go in, and there were enough experiments — and there have been enough experiments — done on the protection of the pusher plate, to have no doubt that it would have worked. Between those two things there is a tremendous amount of engineering detail to be worked out, but I think it was engineering detail. It could have worked. Now, could it have been done economically, could it have been done in time? Those were all different questions, but I think all of those things could have been solved. Today, people ask me, ‘Was it really a joke, Pyatt, or was it serious?’ It was dead serious. If we wanted to do it, if there were any good reason for wanting to have high specific impulse and high thrust at the same time, we could go out and build Orion right now. And I think it would make a lot of sense.'”
— Bud Pyatt, remembering his work on Project Orion, as quoted by George Dyson in Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002), p. 119. Dyson’s book is essential reading for anyone interested in advanced propulsion concepts and the history of space research.
