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NASA Chief Announces Plan to Build Lunar Village by 2035
NASA aims to sustain human life on the Moon with a nuclear-powered village and advance Mars exploration within ten years, the agency's administrator said at IAC 2025.
At the International Astronautical Congress 2025 in Sydney, NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said the U.S. could run a village on the Moon within a decade, powered by a nuclear reactor from commercial partners responding to NASA's recent RFI.
Senate testimony and witnesses warned that China may land astronauts at the lunar south pole before the U.S., with former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine saying, 'Unless something changes, it is highly unlikely the United States will beat China’s projected timeline to the Moon’s surface.'
NASA and the Department of Energy have been developing fission surface power for years, and Duffy ordered development of a 100 kilowatt reactor, urging deployment to make lunar habitation real.
Congress provided $10 billion for NASA and oversight chairmen pressed Duffy for spending details; of that, $4.1 billion is for Space Launch System and $20 million for Orion spacecraft.
International collaboration is growing, as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Indian Space Research Organisation plan LUPEX, while Mike Gold warned, 'If they get there first, we will see a global realignment...