US President Donald Trump set out the US goal of sending humans back to the Moon by 2028 and defending space from weapons threats in a sweeping executive order, the first major space policy move of his administration’s second term.
The order, issued hours after billionaire private astronaut and former SpaceX customer Jared Isaacman was sworn in as NASA’s 15th administrator, also reorganized the coordination of national space policies under the direction of Trump’s top science adviser, Michael Kratsios.
Titled “SECURING AMERICAN SPACE SUPERIORITY,” the order calls on the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies to create a space security strategy, encourages efficiency among private contractors and requires demonstrations of missile defense technologies under Trump’s Golden Dome program.
It appears to have abolished the White House’s top space policy coordinating body, the National Space Council, a panel of cabinet members that the president revived during his first term and has considered dismissing this year.
But an administration official said it would not be canceled and suggested it would continue to be under the White House Office of Technology Policy with a different structure in which the president, rather than the vice president, would be the chair.
The goal of landing humans on the Moon by the end of Trump’s second term in 2028 bears similarities to the president’s directive in his first term to make a return to the Moon by 2024, placing the satellite at the center of American space exploration policy. /Telegraph/