Trump issues revised space policy aimed at faciliating 1,000 American launches and re-entries per year by 2030
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” And do so, for America!
President Trump yesterday issued a new national space transportation policy, ordering numerous agencies and their executives to do everything in their power to facilitate the American space industry, so that by 2030 the nation will be able to support a thousand launches and re-entries per year.
Access to, from, and within space is a vital national and economic security interest. American space transportation capabilities underpin the global economy, and commercial space innovation flourishes with affordable, reliable, and safe space transportation. The United States must establish and maintain space transportation capabilities that ensure access to the full range of orbital regimes relevant to United States interests, from suborbital and very-low Earth orbit altitudes to the lunar surface, Lagrange points, and deep space. By 2030, our space transportation ranges must grow to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries every year. The policies set forth in this memorandum will secure America’s continued superiority in space.
The White House also issued a fact sheet that summarizes the order quite succinctly. The policy has six areas of focus. all clearly aimed at getting the government bureaucracy working to help rather than hinder private industry. The order also lays out in detail requirements for the agencies to coordinate their actions.
The order also appears to lend direct support to the policy decision in late July by the Transportation department to exempt rocket companies from numerous repetitive environmental reviews. Trump’s order adds additional legal weight to that Transportation policy directive, requiring all agencies across the board to go along with it.
Finally, the order re-emphasized Trump’s America First focus by requiring, with exceptions, that American payloads are launched on American rockets, while also reinforcing various State Department regulations aimed at preventing that technology from being stolen by foreign powers.
In general, this new policy aligns quite closely with most of Trump’s previous space policy announcements in its focus on enabling American private enterprise, reducing regulations, and coordinating that policy aggressively across all federal agencies. The ambitious goal of reaching 1,000 launches per year by 2030 is an addition, but this merely lays out a hopeful aspiration. Up until four years ago, just getting to 70 annual launches was a difficult challenge. Even now, the most the U.S. has managed in one year was 195, in 2025, and that was mostly due to SpaceX.
A thousand launches per year in a decade or so is quite possible, but by 2030 that goal is more like an Elon Musk schedule, likely to miss its target dates but not unreasonably.
Varda’s third capsule, on the ground in Australia.
Click for original image.
Trump’s new order does however also include one major language addition that I do not remember existing in previous space policy orders, adding “re-entry” alongside launches. This addition appears specifically aimed at removing the many bureaucratic and security issues that have made it impossible for American capsule recovery companies to land their capsules on American soil. In one case, Varda, its first capsule was stuck in orbit an extra six months before the FAA and the military would approve its landing at the Army’s Utah test range. As a result, Varda and two other such companies have been forced to sign deals with an Australia spaceport/test range to land their capsules.
It seems the Trump administration has been watching what has happened to Varda, and decided to address the issue directly and bluntly.
Overall, this Trump order exhibits his typical businessman’s approach to management. He not only has laid out the goals he wants his company (the federal government) to achieve, he has included very specific management directives to the agencies and executives involved to make sure they are on board and working to achieve the goals. With deadlines I might add.
Of course, all of this will vanish like a puff of smoke should the Democrats regain control of Congress and the Presidency. In all ways that party no longer seems allied with America, its history, its future, and its people. Instead, the Democrats seem only interested in tearing down that history and its people, and thus it is almost certain it will act to destroy this new American renaissance that is leading to the colonization of the solar system, if it gets the power to do so.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Robert wrote: “A thousand launches per year in a decade or so is quite possible, but by 2030 that goal is more like an Elon Musk schedule, likely to miss its target dates but not unreasonably.”
By 2030, Rocket Lab’s Electron could be launching close to 100 times annually, and Nova could be a score or so. New Glenn could ramp up toward approaching 50, and ULA’s Vulcan could easily ramp up to a whopping dozen, if that company’s past is any indicator. There are a few startups that could collectively approach a few dozen by 2030, too.
Depending upon the mass that Starship can take to orbit, there could be several Starship launches just to refill Ship tanks for flights to Mars and the Moon, by 2030, so there could be a lot of Starship launches for each Mars transit window. Then there is the desire by SpaceX to launch a whole lot of satellites for their Starlink and similar communication constellations as well as their million-satellite datacenter satellites.
Included in all that is the demand for launches described in the Eric Berger article that Richard M pointed to, the other day. This growing demand needs filling, and this Golden Age of Space Transportation policy could help satisfy it. Especially as we start to see the benefits that come from space manufacturing and people start to ask why we didn’t do space manufacturing with the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS).
SpaceX may have decided to ramp down Falcon launches not due to its obsolescence but due to California’s anti-business attitude. The company may be desperate to abandon that state before it does something truly stupid and costs its companies far too dearly to remain in business. They be idiots, running that state.
“As a result, Varda and two other such companies have been forced to sign deals with an Australia spaceport/test range to land their capsules.”
My recollection is that after Varda’s first reentry a U.S. rule was forged that requires reentering payloads to have their permissions for reentry before they receive launch licenses. The government’s response to its own incompetence was to put a further burden upon We the People. Deals outside the U.S. are not merely a good idea but a necessity — a forced action — because it is so difficult to get permissions inside the U.S. For space manufacturing, return within the U.S. is not a viable option. It is as though the U.S. government is not interested in commercial space or commercial space manufacturing. Hampering We the People violates the U.S. Constitution’s Preamble (to “…promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity …“), the paragraph that explains the purpose of the U.S. government. The Whole point is to look out for the wellbeing of the American people, the ones already born and those yet to be born.
In all ways that party no longer seems allied with America, its history, its future, and its people. Instead, the Democrats seem only interested in tearing down that history and its people, and thus it is almost certain it will act to destroy this new American renaissance that is leading to the colonization of the solar system, if it gets the power to do so.
The Democratic Party was founded to defend the institution of slavery, an institution that violated the very purpose of the United States in the first place. The Party has always been anti-American and anti-Constitution, and it always will be. Its very foundation is for a few people to control other people, and its actions ever since have been toward that goal, even when the other people are business owners — the very people who make America run. It is why the one-party state of California (Democrat) is so anti-business.
From the memorandum:
Think how bad it would be if the range resources for launch had been as poorly managed for commercial users as they are currently managed for reentry. The U.S. would still be dependent upon the Russians for access to the ISS, and the space station may not have been approved for extension beyond 2028. And no commercial space stations, no space manufacturing, and no communication constellations, among other things.
I doubt that SpaceX is ramping down Falcon due to California. Although they manufacture Falcon 9 first and second stages in California now, almost all the rest of SpaceX’s operations are in Texas or Florida, safely red states. They launch from Vandenburg, but thats an Air Force installation and the state already tried limiting launches there unsuccessfully (because they hate Musk, not for any other reason).
However SpaceX doesnt’ make that much money from space launch (for other people) using Falcon 9. If Starship were up and running for Starlink/Starmind launches, its not clear how often they’d have to launch Falcon 9 and the existing set of launchers might be sufficent for a considerable period. By the time we get to mid-2028 we might see the Falcon9 assembly line shut down, or close to it, just for business reasons.
Vandenberg, with a second ‘e.’ And it has been a Space Force Base for some years now.
SpaceX makes a very good gross margin on 2nd-party Falcon launches, roughly 75%. If the total sums involved now look like chump change it is only because Starlink and AI have zoomed way past launch services as the major revenue producers for SpaceX.
Joseph Pistritto,
“I doubt that SpaceX is ramping down Falcon due to California.”
Maybe not, but California made its displeasure with Musk known, Musk replied “Message received,” and he moved out of state well before they threatened policies that would have cost Musk $50 billion in cash he does not have on hand. Good for him. In addition, California tried to regulate SpaceX at Vandenberg, as you already noted. With a hostile attitude like that, I am willing to entertain the possibility that SpaceX and Musk are getting as far away from that hostility as they can as fast as they reasonably can.
The idiots running the state keep proposing and enacting idiotic policies that harm businesses and the populace, including literally burning down Paradise. Musk joined a growing mob of citizens that is fleeing California for places of rationality, prosperity, and liberty.
I have this sneaking suspicion that ASTRA was hoping to ride anti-Musk sentiment in hopes of a check….but it is easier to be agin’ someone or something.…than to actively support an alternative to that something.
Astra probably isn’t as woke as they pretend to be.
Spaceflight appeals to an expansionist mindset that the Chinese and Soviets have in common with Elon—something Gavin’s Gulag lacks.
So while the professional screamers could be counted on to attack Elon, Astra will not get much out of them since they’d rather fund gender studies.
“the most the U.S. has managed in one year was 195, in 2026, ”
2025, and it doesn’t look like 2026 will beat it.
Oy. My own stats, and I commit a typo in the year. Thanks. Fixed.