Revealed at the agency’s “Ignition” event, the reforms are designed to accelerate delivery of President Donald Trump’s National Space Policy and sharpen US competitiveness in an intensifying global space race.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency was shifting to a wartime footing, warning success would be measured “in months, not years”.
Central to the plan is a major revamp of the Artemis program. The agency will standardise its Space Launch System rocket and target annual moon missions from 2027, beginning with Artemis III system testing in Earth orbit before a follow-on lunar landing.
Beyond that, NASA intends to pivot towards more commercially procured, reusable systems, aiming for crewed lunar landings every six months as capability matures.
A permanent moon base will be built in three phases: initial robotic missions and technology trials, followed by early infrastructure and astronaut rotations, before culminating in a sustained human presence supported by international partners, including Australia, Japan, Canada and Italy.
In a notable shift, NASA will pause development of the planned lunar Gateway station in its current form, redirecting resources towards surface operations and infrastructure.
At the same time, the agency is seeking to avoid a capability gap in low-Earth orbit as the International Space Station nears retirement. A new strategy would see NASA procure a core module attached to the ISS, with commercial modules added, tested and eventually detached into independent private stations.
The goal is to seed a competitive orbital economy, with NASA acting as one customer among many.
On the science front, NASA is doubling down. Upcoming missions include the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the Dragonfly rotorcraft to Saturn’s moon Titan, and a Mars mission delivering Europe’s Rosalind Franklin rover.
But the headline-grabber is nuclear propulsion.
NASA confirmed it will launch “Space Reactor-1 Freedom”, the first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft to Mars by 2028. The mission will demonstrate nuclear electric propulsion and deploy helicopter drones to explore the Martian surface.
The technology promises vastly more efficient deep space travel and could underpin future missions beyond Jupiter.
NASA is also reforming its workforce, bringing key skills back in-house, embedding experts across its industrial base, and expanding pathways for early-career talent.
Associate administrator Amit Kshatriya said the agency was “aligning around the mission”, with a sharper focus on execution, partnerships and cutting red tape.
With industry tenders and partnership requests due within days, the next phase of NASA’s moon-to-Mars push is set to move quickly, and at scale.