NASA has cancelled its plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead use its components to build a $20 billion base on the moon's surface, while also planning to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars.

Nasa announced on Tuesday it ⁠has cancelled plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and ⁠would instead use components from the project to build a US$20 billion base on the moon’s surface, while also planning to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars. US space agency chief Jared Isaacman, an appointee of US President Donald Trump who took charge at Nasa in December, announced an unprecedented array of changes to the Artemis moon programme that would expand humanity’s footprint in space,...