Anonymousabout 1 hour ago
The Trump administration has directed NASA and the Department of Energy to deploy a fission reactor on the lunar surface by late 2029, backed by hundreds of millions in new funding and framed as a race against China's own lunar nuclear ambitions. But the U.S. has spent an estimated $6 billion on space nuclear programs since the 1950s without putting a single reactor in orbit since 1965, and independent cost estimates suggest the current budget falls far short of what's needed — raising the question of whether the 2030 deadline is an engineering plan or a political target.