Because of its outstanding advantages, in major countries such as the United States (U.S.) and Russia, the space nuclear power becomes a key to building strong space-based capabilities and taking strategic advantages in space. Recently, the U.S. government has successively formulated strategies and policies on the development of the space nuclear power to ensure its leading position in the space competition. In order to accurately identify focuses and goals of the U.S. space nuclear power, this paper reviews the latest progress in the space nuclear power in the U.S. and analyzes the development trend to help the decision making of the space nuclear power in China. It is shown that the U.S. is accelerating the strategic deployment of the space militarization at the national level and is developing the space nuclear power as a national strategy. For the first time, the U.S. puts forward systematic and comprehensive policies, goals, principles, roadmaps for developing the space nuclear power, to establish a high-level organization and a coordination mechanism to ensure the effective implementation of relevant strategies and policies. The U.S. space nuclear power will achieve a rapid development based on its solid technical foundation and will provide a disruptive and powerful driving force for the construction and development of the U.S.

United States  /  space nuclear power  /  national strategy  /  development trend