The explorer's plans

NASA's plans, in detail

by Joe Miller

In March 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman laid out a new plan: stay on the Moon, not just visit, and send America's first nuclear-powered spacecraft to scout Mars. "The goal is not flags and footprints," he said.

$20BFor the Moon base over 7 years

2028Planned crewed Moon landings

Every 6 mo.Crewed landings Isaacman wants

Dec 2028Skyfall nuclear spacecraft leaves for Mars

1. The Artemis flights

April 2026 · Artemis II · Done. Four astronauts flew around the Moon on NASA's SLS rocket and Orion capsule, and splashed down safely on April 10.

2027 · Test in Earth orbit · Orion practices meeting and docking with the commercial Moon landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, close to home.

2028 · Artemis IV (and maybe V) · The first crewed Moon landings since 1972, on commercial landers.

After that · Crewed landings about every six months, using at least two different launch companies.

Big changes: NASA's own SLS rocket will no longer launch the next Artemis crews; commercial rockets take over. The planned Gateway station in lunar orbit is paused, and its parts will be reused on the surface, with crews going straight from Orion to their lander.

2. The Moon base at Shackleton Crater

About $20 billion over seven years, on the sunny rim of Shackleton Crater at the south pole, next to ice in the dark crater floor. Reports on the plan describe three phases:

Phase	When	What happens
1. Foundation	to 2028	Many more landings, about 25 launches, delivering rovers, instruments and test equipment, and the first crewed landing.
2. Regular operations	2029–2032	Habitats and a pressurized rover; astronaut crews rotating about twice a year from around 2030.
3. Permanent base	2033–2036	A nuclear fission power plant plus solar power, a Moon communications network and "lunar GPS," and people living there year-round.

Reported totals for the full program run to about 79 launches and 73 landers, 10 Moon buggies called Lunar Terrain Vehicles, 12 small hopping drones and four habitat modules, with costs reaching about $30 billion by 2036. Congress has not settled the budget, so these numbers may change.

3. Mars: Skyfall and SR-1 Freedom

Part	Plan
Spacecraft	SR-1 Freedom, which NASA calls its first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft. A small fission reactor makes electricity for electric thrusters.
Launch	December 2028, arriving at Mars about a year later.
Helicopters	Skyfall: three small helicopters like Ingenuity, dropped at Mars.
Job	Cameras and ground-penetrating radar map buried ice and check slopes and hazards at a possible landing site for astronauts.
Afterward	NASA may keep flying the spacecraft deeper into the solar system.

4. Close to home

The International Space Station is set to retire around 2030. NASA plans to rent space on new commercial space stations instead, and to sell some seats to private travelers.

How NASA and SpaceX fit together

NASA sets the goals, does the science, scouts the landing sites and buys rides. SpaceX and Blue Origin build and fly the rockets and landers. Starship is both NASA's Moon lander and Musk's ship for his own Moon city and Mars. See Musk's plans.