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

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.

Returning to the moon and building a base will pale in comparison to what we will be capable of accomplishing in the years ahead,” Isaacman said.

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.

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

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 ...

NASA’s Psyche mission, launched in 2023, will study a $10,000 quadrillion asteroid, with new research showing that its craters could reveal its true origin.

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 ...

On March 27, 1989, the Soviet Union's Phobos 2 mission to Mars' moons ended in failure. [‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com] But the whole mission was definitely not a failure. Phobos 2