Project Plowshare

Along the same lines - Project Orion:

> Project Orion was a study of a spacecraft intended to be directly propelled by a series of explosions of atomic bombs behind the craft (nuclear pulse propulsion). Early versions of this vehicle were proposed to take off from the ground with significant associated nuclear fallout; later versions were presented for use only in space. Six non-nuclear tests were conducted using models.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...