Trump’s new executive order prioritizes “American space superiority”

US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order under the name “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” which puts space dominance at the center of the country’s national security and prosperity.

The document outlines multiple priorities and ways to achieve them, starting with leading the world in space exploration. That includes returning Americans to the Moon by 2028 through the Artemis Program, establishing initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030, and improving the cost-effectiveness of launch and exploration architectures.

This goal is consistent with NASA’s previously outlined plans. Artemis IV (2028) is targeted to send the crew to lunar orbit to assemble the Lunar Gateway, which will be humanity’s first lunar space station, while Artemis V is currently scheduled for around 2030.

The second goal concerns ensuring American security in, from, and to space, such as the development of next-generation missile defense technologies by 2028, improved detection and countering of threats from very low-Earth orbit through cislunar space, and the creation of a responsive national security space architecture.

The third goal focuses on embracing a commercial space economy “through the power of American free enterprise.” The executive order aims to attract at least $50 billion of additional investment in American space markets by 2028 and incentivize private sector initiative to replace the International Space Station by 2030.

The final goal aims to develop and deploy new advanced capabilities to “enable the next century of space achievements.” This includes optimizing space research-and-development investments; deploying nuclear power on the Moon and in orbit; improving space and Earth weather forecasting; initiating responsible approaches to space traffic management and orbital debris mitigation; and developing ground, orbital, and lunar infrastructure and standards.

The executive order also lays out implementation steps, such as ordering NASA, in coordination with other agencies, to develop a plan “for achieving the policy objectives in this order regarding leading the world in space exploration and expanding human reach and American presence in space” within 90 days.

Jared Isaacman, the confirmed Administrator of NASA as of Thursday, along with the Commerce Secretary, should also identify any major space acquisition programs that are 30% behind schedule, 30% over budget, are unable to meet their targets, or are “unaligned with the priorities in this order, along with a description of their planned mitigation or remediation efforts.”

In August, Trump signed an executive order to streamline federal regulation governing commercial rocket launches. Private space ventures, such as Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, could benefit from a more relaxed regulatory regime.