The U.S. space agency will aim to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars—a first—in a bid to show that nuclear propulsion can be used to send missions into deep space

NASA plans to launch a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars by 2028, a major step for deep space exploration and its planned moon base.

The mission, called Space Reactor-1 Freedom (SR-1 Freedom), is set to launch in December 2028. This mission aims to showcase the use of nuclear fission in space to power electric thrusters. While nuclear technology has been around for decades, it lacked the drive, purpose, destination, and leadership—until now.

The agency’s leader said new plans and timelines for the coming decade aim to create a permanent foothold by humans on another world and inspire Americans.

If you were to stand on the surface of Mars in two years and look up to the night sky, you might see a bright streak flying across the heavens, followed a few minutes later by another. Rather than flecks of space stuff, they would be satellites on a ...

A Dutch company that aims to land humans on Mars in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent Red Planet colony has received its first funding from sponsors, officials announced this week. Mars One plans to fund most of its ambitious activities via a global ...

When humans finally land on Mars, what should they do? A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine lays out the science objectives for a crewed Mars mission. Planetary scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who co-chaired the ...

Why it matters: Artemis II is a critical test mission to shake down spacecraft systems, enabling a permanent human presence on the Moon and preparing for future missions to Mars. Free-return trajectory – a path that loops around the Moon and returns to Earth without propulsion