NASA and Russia have set lunar nuclear power deadlines of 2030 and 2036, as reliable electricity is seen as necessary to sustain work through long periods of darkness on the Moon.
NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy announced a renewed partnership in January 2026 to develop a fission system for the lunar surface. The agencies say it could supply power across changing light and temperature conditions and operate for years without refueling. NASA says crews may eventually be able to use polar ice for drinking water and to make oxygen and rocket fuel.
A White House memorandum dated April 14, 2026, directs NASA to have a lunar reactor ready for launch by 2030. It requires at least 20 kilowatts-electric of output and a minimum five-year operating life on the lunar surface. The memorandum says NASA should narrow the field to no more than two designs within one year. The agency’s technology page gives a separate milestone: Lunar Reactor-1 is expected to land on the Moon in 2030.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said it contracted NPO Lavochkin to develop a lunar power station by 2036. The agency said the project is meant to support Russian lunar operations and infrastructure for the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a joint Russia-China effort that includes facilities for international partners. The two countries signed a memorandum on lunar power-station cooperation in 2025.
China’s official 2024 description of the ILRS includes an energy supply system and places the first phase of the station in 2035, but does not specify a reactor. Reuters reported in April 2025 that a presentation by a Chinese official listed a lunar nuclear plant as one possible power source. Reuters also reported that China had not formally announced a reactor plan at the time.
Russian officials have described different technical specifications. Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev said a lunar power unit could produce up to 10 kilowatts, weigh no more than 1,200 kilograms and operate for at least 10 years. Interfax separately reported that Kurchatov Institute President Mikhail Kovalchuk described the Selena project as a five-kilowatt system weighing 1,300 kilograms, with a service life of up to five years and a prototype planned for 2032. The reports do not establish whether the figures refer to different designs.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bars countries from claiming the Moon through sovereignty, use or occupation, and requires states to avoid harmful contamination. A Soviet nuclear-powered satellite, COSMOS 954, crashed in Canada’s Northwest Territories on Jan. 24, 1978. Health Canada says it spread radioactivity over 124,000 square kilometers and that a joint cleanup continued through October that year.
NASA’s next stated step is selecting up to two designs within a year of the April 14 memorandum. Roscosmos’ published completion target is 2036.
