NASA’s plan to put a nuclear reactor on a Mars-bound spacecraft by 2028 sounds impossible — until you realize the agency is quietly stitching together two programs that were never supposed to meet
By Space Daily Editorial Team, 9 June 2026 Building a nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft typically takes a decade. NASA is trying to do it in roughly two and a half years — and the only way the math works is by welding together two programs that were never designed to talk











