The plans come about a week before NASA hopes to launch astronauts around the moon and back for the first time since the end of its Apollo program in 1972.

The new initiative includes a base on the moon, a nuclear-powered flight to Mars and a replacement for the ISS.

In an on-going overhaul of NASA's Artemis program, agency officials say it will take seven years to build a sophisticated base on the moon.

The agency’s leader said new plans and timelines for the coming decade aim to create a permanent foothold by humans on another world and inspire Americans.

The agency is cancelling plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and ​will instead use its components to construct the ‌base, NASA chief Jared Isaacman announced Tuesday.

NASA is hitting the reset button on its return to the moon and going even bigger. The agency is fast tracking a permanent base on the moon's surface.

The goal is to strengthen U.S. leadership presence in space by creating a sustain human presence on the moon, according to the agency.

A NASA rocket will blast off in early April with four astronauts for a trip around the moon, with subsequent Artemis missions involving lunar landings.