Nuclear astrophysics is an interdisciplinary research field integrating nuclear physics, astrophysics and astronomy. It has always been an important frontier of physics in the world. This paper summarizes the current status, key research topics, and experimental approaches in nuclear astrophysics and briefly introduces its research prospect based on the High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF), which is a large-scale scientific facility for nuclear physics that is under construction in China. HIAF has great advantages for studying the masses, half-life, and reaction cross sections of the unstable nuclides and will provide a good opportunity for understanding explosive nuclear processes as well as the origin of heavy elements in the universe. For key reactions in the nucleosynthesis process, indirect measurement methods and experimental techniques such as ANC, Oslo, surrogate reactions, and surrogate ratio methods, will be developed and used for the systematic studies on the charged-particle or neutron capture reactions. Using the HIAF storage ring, the mass of the r-process nuclides can be systematically measured. Using the HIAF secondary beam line and high-efficiency detector, the decay half-life of the r-process nuclides can be measured. Furthermore, based on HIAF, the equations of states of a neutron star and weak interaction rates can be studied. Using the above nuclear physics experimental and theoretical research, the database of the masses and reaction rates will be updated. Astronomical observations will be combined to test the astrophysical model, and to understand the evolution of stars as well as the origin of elements in the universe.