Trump wants to clean up the space industry’s red tape. Here’s who wins.

Summary

During a press conference in late 2024, President Donald Trump vowed to “slash massive numbers of job-killing regulations” in his second term and pledged to eliminate 10 old rules for every new one. Now, he’s bringing that deregulation drive to commercial space, ordering federal agencies to streamline launch licensing, fast-track spaceport development, and clear out the Federal Aviation Administration’s industry advisory board. “Inefficient permitting processes discourage investment and innovation, limiting the ability of U.S. companies to lead in global space markets,” he stated in an Executive Order signed August 13. The order directs the Department of Transportation to cut “outdated, redundant, or overly restrictive” rules that govern launch and re-entry licenses. It also instructs the Federal Aviation Administration, which is housed under the DOT, to eliminate or accelerate environmental reviews, ease the path to building new spaceports, and to appoint a “senior executive” charged with fostering “innovation and deregulation.” The Commerce Department also has been ordered to stand up a new process for authorizing “novel space activities,” like in-space manufacturing or satellite refueling, that don’t fit neatly into existing licensing regimes. The executive order came the same dayTransportation Secretary and Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy dismissed every member of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), a longstanding industry advisory board inside DOT that shapes spaceflight rules and priorities. For companies that have spent years mired in environmental reviews and licensing delays, the order was a welcome sign that future bids would experience shorter timelines and more regulatory clarity. The Commercial Space Federation, an industry trade group whose members include SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and a dozen others, applauded the executive order for providing “regulatory relief to unleash the U.S. commercial space industry.” ...