WASHINGTON — The White House issued a sweeping executive order on space policy Dec. 18 covering topics from NASA’s exploration plans to space security.
The order, “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” includes a call for returning humans to the moon by 2028 and directs development of a space security strategy to address potential threats to American space interests.
The order is framed as a reset of U.S. space policy, the White House said, to ensure U.S. dominance in exploration, security and space commerce at a time of intensified global competition.
“Superiority in space is a measure of national vision and willpower, and the technologies Americans develop to achieve it contribute substantially to the Nation’s strength, security, and prosperity,” the order states. “The United States must therefore pursue a space policy that will extend the reach of human discovery, secure the Nation’s vital economic and security interests, unleash commercial development, and lay the foundation for a new space age.”
In civil space, the order — issued the same day as Jared Isaacman was sworn in as NASA administrator — formally sets a new goal of returning humans to the surface of the moon by 2028 and “establishing initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost” by 2030. It also confirms plans to retire the International Space Station by 2030 and replace it with commercial stations.
It reaffirms a policy directive issued by then-Acting Administrator Sean Duffy in July directing the development of a nuclear reactor “ready for launch” to the lunar surface by 2030. To that end, it calls for the development of guidance for a “National Initiative for American Space Nuclear Power” within 60 days, coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
Many of the civil space provisions in the order focus less on what to do in space and more on how. It directs NASA to develop a plan in 90 days for carrying out the objectives in the order, “including plans for mitigating any technology, supply chain, or industrial capacity gaps relevant to achieving those goals within available funding.”
It also directs NASA and the Commerce Department, which includes NOAA, to identify programs that are at least 30% over budget or 30% behind schedule, as well as those unable to meet key objectives or “unaligned with the priorities in this order,” including how the agencies will address them.
Acquisition reforms
Both NASA and the Commerce Department are directed to implement acquisition reform, including ways to expedite space acquisitions through other transaction authorities or commercial purchases. It also directs Commerce to end its reliance on NASA for acquisition support for satellite programs; NASA has traditionally handled acquisition of NOAA weather satellite programs.
The directive also suggests changes to international civil space cooperation. It directs NASA, working with OSTP and the State Department, to review existing international agreements to check their alignment with the order’s priorities, “including by initiating new arrangements and modifying or terminating existing arrangements where appropriate and consistent with existing authorities and legal obligations.”
For commercial space, the subject of a separate executive order in August, the policy calls for attracting at least $50 billion in additional investment in American space markets by 2028 and “increasing launch and reentry cadence through new and upgraded facilities, improved efficiency, and policy reforms.” The order does not go into details about how to achieve those goals.
The order includes more subtle changes. It rescinds the executive order from the Biden administration in 2021 regarding operations of the National Space Council, but does not issue new direction regarding a council. The first Trump administration reestablished the council in 2017, which has been dormant since the early 1990s.
The order also amends Space Policy Directive 3 from the first Trump administration in 2018, which instructed the Commerce Department to create a civil space traffic coordination system. The new order removes language from SPD-3 requiring the Commerce Department to provide basic services “free of direct user fees,” replacing that with “for commercial and other relevant use.” That would allow the department to charge fees for access to the service, potentially to cover its operating costs.
National security posture
The executive order emphasizes defending U.S. interests from Earth orbit through cislunar space, integrating commercial capabilities into the defense architecture and modernizing the nation’s military space architecture.
The Pentagon is instructed to develop and demonstrate prototype next-generation missile defense systems by 2028, building on an earlier missile defense initiative Trump directed in an executive order in January.
The order charges civilian and defense acquisition programs with reforming how space capabilities are bought and deployed, with an explicit push to integrate commercial space technology and open the national security space market to new entrants. The goal is to make U.S. military space systems more agile and cost-effective in the face of near-peer competitors.
It also calls for a responsive and adaptive national security space architecture that can address emerging threats, including potential adversary placement of weapons systems in orbit. The White House said this will include expanded cooperation with allies and partners, from shared investments to basing agreements and security cooperation.
National security officials will also review and revise how space security strategy is implemented, with deadlines in the coming months for agencies to submit plans on threat detection and response, acquisition reform and allied coordination.
The executive order comes as former defense officials and experts from the national security community argue that the administration should give space more attention in its broader security policy.
