WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum establishing a new national space transportation policy. The directive sets a goal to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries per year by 2030.

The policy directs the Department of the Interior to identify federal lands to serve as an additional designated federal land reentry site within 90 days. It calls on the Pentagon and NASA to prioritize and coordinate on infrastructure investments to boost launch and reentry capacity at federal ranges.

Federal spaceports include Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Only the Florida and California spaceports are currently outfitted for heavy-lift launches.

The policy directs the military and NASA to regularly publish range schedules to ensure transparent allocation of resources. It also directs agencies to designate priority airspace for critical space launch corridors.

NASA receives direction to facilitate commercial transportation to the Moon and support future commercial robotic and human expeditions to Mars. The policy aims to return U.S. astronauts to the Moon by 2028. The administration set a target for initial Moon Base elements by 2030.

In the previous year, there were 176 orbital launch attempts from U.S. soil. SpaceX conducted 165 orbital launches of its Falcon 9 rocket and five suborbital test flights of Starship in that same period.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink stated in a May hearing that a Pentagon study identified the need for a third heavy-lift launch site in the United States for resiliency. Gen. Chance Saltzman stated in a May hearing that the Space Force needs to increase launch capacity and have separate launch locations for geographic resiliency.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a request for public comment regarding the potential use of submerged lands and abandoned offshore oil rigs for sea-based space launches and reentry activities.

The new policy replaces the 2013 national space transportation policy signed by former President Barack Obama. It directs agencies to expedite permitting and environmental reviews for space launches.

Why It Matters

The goal of 1,000 annual launches represents an increase from recent activity levels. In 2025, the United States recorded 170 launches, meaning the 2030 target requires a nearly six-fold expansion of launch cadence over five years.

The identification of a new reentry site addresses a bottleneck in current infrastructure. With only two spaceports currently capable of handling heavy-lift vehicles, the addition of federal land for reentry and the potential for sea-based options aim to distribute risk and increase throughput.

What's New

The Federal Aviation Administration head stated in May that SpaceX aimed to reach 10,000 annual launches within five years. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios said the new policy meets this moment of explosive growth and positions America to lead the next era of space.

The policy aims for initial Moon Base elements by 2030. The policy wants a new federal re-entry site identified within 90 days.

SpaceX conducted 170 launches in 2025, deploying about 2,500 satellites. The policy directs agencies to refrain from conducting government space transportation activities that compete with commercial activities unless required for public safety or national security.

SpaceX stated in January that it wants to launch a constellation of 1 million satellites to orbit Earth and harness the sun to power AI data centers. The policy directs federal agencies to consider requests to launch commercial foreign space vehicles in the United States on a case-by-case basis.