The number to know: 1,000. That is how many launches and re-entries a year the White House wants American space companies to handle by 2030, up from 178 launches last year, Reuters reported. President Donald Trump signed the memo setting the target on Thursday, August 20, 2026.
The bottom line is a policy rewrite. The memorandum repeals an older National Space Transportation Policy, the White House said in a fact sheet, and replaces it with what the administration calls an America First approach to reliable, affordable access to space.
What the memo orders
Agencies are told to push private-sector partners into co-developing launch infrastructure, to speed up permitting and environmental reviews, and to publish range schedules so launch resources are used fully. Reuters added that the memo calls for adequate wireless spectrum for launches.
The Transportation and Interior secretaries, working with the Secretary of War and NASA’s administrator, must identify more launch and re-entry sites. Trump wants a new federal re-entry site identified within 90 days, Reuters reported, and the memo directs agencies to look at federal land. It also sets aside priority airspace for launch corridors and ties space operations into air traffic control modernization.
Government agencies are to avoid space transportation activities that “preclude, discourage, or compete with” commercial ones, unless public safety or national security requires it. Requests to launch commercial foreign space vehicles from US soil will be weighed case by case.
The scale of the industry
Last year’s 178 launches were already ten times the 2013 total, and SpaceX dominated them, Reuters said. The company conducted 170 launches in 2025, deploying about 2,500 satellites. In May the head of the Federal Aviation Administration said SpaceX aimed to reach 10,000 annual launches within five years. In January SpaceX said it wants a constellation of 1 million satellites to harness the sun to power AI data centers.
The fact sheet ties the push to communications as well as defense. It lists “ubiquitous satellite-enabled communications for global broadband internet access” among the payoffs of next-generation space capabilities, alongside better positioning and timing services and more accurate weather forecasts.
Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said the new policy “meets this moment of explosive growth and positions America to lead the next era of space.” He described a “commercial-first approach” with Americans on the Moon by 2028 and initial Moon Base elements by 2030. The memo also directs NASA to facilitate commercial transportation to the Moon and commercial robotic access to Mars.
Neither the fact sheet nor the Reuters report says what the launch increase would cost or what it would mean for ground networks or streaming services.
Sources
- Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Launches the Golden Age of Space Transportation – The White House
- Trump Signs Memo to Help Drastically Boost US Commercial Space Launches
