Trump Signs Order to Ease Space Industry Regulations In Musk Win

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to ease regulations for the commercial space industry, including steps to speed the licensing process for rocket launches in a win for the growing sector and onetime ally Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The executive order directs the secretary of Transportation to review regulatory requirements to “eliminate outdated, redundant, or overly restrictive rules for launch and reentry vehicles,” according to a fact sheet from the White House.

Trump asked the Transportation secretary to “reevaluate, amend, or rescind” Part 450, a section of the Federal Aviation Administration’s licensing process for launches. Originally intended to streamline rocket licensing, critics have said that the rules and regulations actually complicate the process.

Depending on its implementation, the executive order could directly benefit SpaceX, the most prolific rocket launcher in the world, as it ramps up test flights of its gargantuan Starship rocket. Musk, SpaceX’s CEO, was a prominent ally of Trump before the two publicly fell out over the billionaire’s criticisms of the president’s signature tax-and-spending bill.

The executive order is also poised to be a boon for the wider commercial launch industry, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin LLC, United Launch Alliance LLC and Rocket Lab, many of which also plan to scale up launch operations.

Part 450 was approved in Trump’s first term in response to a directive that called for streamlining commercial launch licensing. The regulation allows a company to obtain one license to cover multiple launches of the same vehicle but requires certain performance-based safety criteria.

SpaceX lobbied against those rules, claiming that the FAA had failed to implement them effectively.

“We continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware,” SpaceX said in a post on its website in September 2024.

The head of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which hands out those licenses, becomes a political appointee under the order, giving the White House more authority to ensure the president’s priorities are carried out.

Wednesday’s order further elevates the Office of Space Commerce, which currently resides under NOAA, to report directly to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a move industry proponents say would give more high-level attention and priority to commercial space activities.

Other provisions of the order instruct the Transportation secretary to work with the chair of the Council of Environmental Quality to eliminate or expedite environmental reviews for launch and reentry vehicles.

That could draw criticism from environmental advocates and raise questions about the safety and preservation of launch sites in coastal areas like Florida, California and Texas.

Trump’s directive also establishes a dedicated post at the Transportation Department to “advise on fostering innovation and deregulation in the commercial space industry,” according to the fact sheet, and calls for the appointment of an “Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation” within the FAA to help reform regulations.

The order also instructs federal departments to determine if states are hindering development of spaceport infrastructure under the Coastal Zone Management Act. It directs officials to align their procedures to eliminate duplicative regulations and expedite spaceport development.

It also mandates the creation of a “streamlined process for authorizing novel space activities,” according to a fact sheet, which explains those as missions not “governed by existing regulatory frameworks.”