Overview

• On July 31, acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy directed the agency to solicit private‐sector proposals for a 100 kW fission reactor on the Moon with a launch window by 2030
• The directive requires NASA to appoint a dedicated project leader within 30 days and to gather industry input within 60 days to accelerate development
• Duffy’s memo warns that the first nation to deploy a lunar reactor could establish a “keep-out zone,” underscoring urgency to outpace China and Russia’s joint mid-2030s reactor plans
• NASA’s Fission Surface Power effort, launched in 2022 with three $5 million contracts for 40 kW concepts, has been upscaled to more than double output for sustained lunar operations
• A companion order mandates that NASA award contracts to at least two commercial teams within six months to field a replacement for the International Space Station by 2030