President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing government agencies to “eliminate or expedite” environmental reviews for commercial launch and reentry licenses.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), part of the Department of Transportation (DOT), grants licenses for commercial launch and reentry operations. The FAA is charged with ensuring launch and reentries don’t endanger the public, comply with environmental laws, and comport with US national interests.
The drive toward deregulation will be welcome news for companies like SpaceX, led by onetime Trump ally Elon Musk, which conducts nearly all of the commercial launches and reentries licensed by the FAA.
Deregulation time
Trump ordered Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who also serves as the acting administrator of NASA, to “use all available authorities to eliminate or expedite … environmental reviews for …. launch and reentry licenses and permits.” In the order signed by Trump, White House officials wrote that Duffy should consult with the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and follow “applicable law” in the regulatory cull.
The executive order also includes a clause directing Duffy to reevaluate, amend, or rescind a slate of launch safety regulations written during the first Trump administration. The FAA published the new regulations, known as Part 450, in 2020 and they went into effect in 2021, but space companies have complained they are too cumbersome and have slowed down the license approval process.
And there’s more. Trump ordered NASA, the military, and DOT to eliminate duplicative reviews for spaceport development. This is particularly pertinent at federally-owned launch ranges like those at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, and Wallops Island, Virginia.
The Trump administration also plans to make the head of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation a political appointee. This office oversees commercial launch and reentry licensing, and was previously led by a career civil servant. Duffy will also hire an advisor on deregulation in the commercial spaceflight industry to join DOT, and the Office of Space Commerce will be elevated to a more prominent position within the Commerce Department.
News of the executive order was reported last month by ProPublica, which wrote that the Trump administration was circulating draft language among federal agencies to slash rules to protect the environment and the public from the dangers of rocket launches.
