SpaceX changed the launch game. Trump wants U.S. infrastructure to catch up.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
The Trump administration has set an intriguing new agenda for American space transportation: Build the capacity to handle more than 1,000 launches and reentries each year by 2030.
This updated National Space Transportation Policy reflects the new normal set by our innovative commercial firms, led by SpaceX, which have turned access to orbit from a rare national spectacle into a rapidly expanding industrial capability.
President Donald Trump just signed a new National Space Transportation Policy that lays out priorities for commercial, civil and national security missions to orbit. The memorandum, published Thursday (Aug. 20), introduces the first update to the policy since 2013, and comes as commercial operators such as SpaceX have driven U.S. launch cadences up more than 800% since 2015.
The policy centers on expanding the infrastructure and procedures needed to support a much busier space industry. It directs federal agencies to identify and broaden commercial access to additional launch and reentry sites, and to incorporate spaceflight operations and critical launch corridors into air traffic control management and modernization efforts. The document gives agencies a deadline to get the work started.
Within 180 days of the memo’s publication, NASA, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Defense (DOD) are directed to begin identifying potential locations for future launch activities, as well as existing facilities that could be upgraded to further increase capacity.
Agencies were also directed to establish leases and commercial investment opportunities to incentivize the co-development of new launch sites. The new properties can be funded, in part, by the same private entities that are lined up to use them.
A major focus of this new policy is on launch infrastructure, rather than launch vehicles. Lack of reentry sites has been a real challenge for the commercial space industry.
It calls upon the Defense Department and NASA, which operate federal launch ranges, to “regularly consider and evaluate opportunities to improve launch and reentry infrastructure” and access to it, including co-development of launch infrastructure with the private sector.
The policy also opens the door for additional launch sites. It directs the Pentagon, NASA and Department of Transportation to work with state and local officials to identify “potential locations for additional launch facilities and targeted development or improvement of launch infrastructure.” The policy does not state whether these new facilities would be federal ranges or spaceports operated by others.
It also instructs the Pentagon and NASA, along with other agencies, to develop scheduling criteria for federal launch facilities in the next 180 days to maximize their use for both commercial and federal operations. That includes improving integration of launches into the National Airspace System and designating “priority airspace for critical space launch corridors.”
The policy also pushes for the development of reentry locations. It directs the Department of the Interior, working with other agencies, to identify federal lands in the next 90 days that could be used as an additional federal reentry site. Later milestones include development of reentry safety criteria for use of that new site and a development plan for the site that would allow commercial access to it.
Our current sites are running out of capacity and will not be able to provide launch sites at the rate needed for the anticipated cadence over the next 10 years.
Today, the Space Force manages two major spaceports at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. Activity at the two ranges accounts for the bulk of U.S. commercial and military launches, and together they supported 175 launches in 2025.
The Space Force has acknowledged those sites are running out of room to handle the demand that’s forecasted over the next five to 10 years. In congressional testimony in May, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the service needs a third launch facility that can handle the larger heavy and super heavy-class rockets. And outgoing Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in July the Space Force may need to put a cap on the number of missions it can support each year without additional funding.
Another provision to this space policy calls on the Pentagon and other departments to identify what “regulatory, programmatic, operational, and technological barriers” hinder efforts to provide more responsive and resilient access to space.
If our country is serious about returning to the Moon, reaching Mars, and maintaining its leadership in the new space race, it cannot allow launch pads, range scheduling, and reentry capacity to become the bottlenecks.
SpaceX’s recent successes, which include Starship’s deployment of next-generation Starlink satellites, an in-space engine relight, and controlled ocean splashdowns, show that the commercial sector is already building the operational muscle for a far more ambitious launch cadence.
The administration’s task now is to ensure the supporting infrastructure, permitting, airspace integration, and regulatory framework finally catch up to the remarkable hardware being developed, constructed, and launched. Whether federal regulators, range infrastructure, and airspace-management systems can keep pace will determine whether this vision becomes a new era of American space leadership or another promising plan grounded by bureaucracy.
One last note: Goldman Sachs projects the global space economy will reach $1.8 trillion by 2035.
