Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy has directed the agency to fast-track plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon.

NASA’s Artemis campaign is a bold series of missions to take humans back to the moon, and those astronauts will get there thanks to help from rocket engines mad

In a bold, strategic move for the U.S., acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy announced plans on Aug. 5, 2025, to build a nuclear fission reactor for deployment on the lunar surface in 2030. Doing so would allow the United States to gain a foothold on the moon by the time China plans to land the first taikonaut,

Placing an atomic energy source on the lunar surface is “not science fiction,” experts say, but does pose technical challenges.

Over half a year into Trump's second term, NASA still doesn't have a leader. The space agency is staring down the barrel of some devastating cuts to its science budget, with the Trump administration betting its future on space exploration alone.

Headed for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche spacecraft successfully calibrated its cameras by looking homeward.

The Mastcam-Z camera on NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the Martian moon Phobos as it eclipsed the sun. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | edited by Space.com Music: Mysterious Forest by Howard Harper-Barn

To gear up for photographing the moon up close, the astronauts used an inflatable moon and a mockup Orion capsule.