Article  Private spaceflight enters the Wild West as Trump slashes regulations

https://gizmodo.com/trumps-latest-order-...2000643045

INTRO: President Donald Trump is calling for an ease of regulations for commercial spaceflight and streamlining licensing for rocket launches and reentries. The move highly favors companies like SpaceX but could have negative repercussions on environmental habitats surrounding launchpads.

On Wednesday, August 13, Trump signed an executive order intended to bolster the spaceflight industry and increase the overall commercial launch cadence. In it, Trump calls on Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who is also currently serving as the acting administrator for NASA, to “eliminate or expedite…environmental reviews for, and other obstacles to the granting of, launch and reentry licenses and permits.” The order also directs Duffy to “reevaluate, amend, or rescind” safety requirements and conditions for launch and reentry licenses that were written during Trump’s first term as president in 2020.

“By slashing red tape tying up spaceport construction, streamlining launch licenses so they can occur at scale, and creating high-level space positions in government, we can unleash the next wave of innovation,” Duffy said in a statement. “I look forward to leveraging my dual role at DOT and NASA to make this dream a reality.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for granting licenses for space launches and reentries while ensuring public safety and protection of property. For years, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has expressed dismay over regulatory bodies such as the FAA, complaining that bureaucratic red tape is holding his rocket company back.

“Starships need to fly. The more we fly safely, the faster we learn; the faster we learn, the sooner we realize full and rapid rocket reuse,” SpaceX wrote in a blog last year while awaiting a launch license for Starship’s fifth test flight. “Unfortunately, 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.”

On the other hand, local environmental groups in Boca Chica, Texas, the site of SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility, have criticized the FAA for regulatory oversight... (MORE - details)

I think that Gizmodo's headline is intentionally tendentious. President Trump's executive order doesn't turn private spaceflight into the "wild west" in any stereotypical sense. Private spaceflight is already competitive and highly innovative, which is a good thing.

What it does is seek to streamline the incredibly cumbersome permitting process not just for vehicles, but even more dramatically, for launch facilities. Any substantive change to already permitted plans such as expanding pads or increasing launch cadence require major environmental analyses that can take years and run to many hundreds of pages. Many state and federal agencies get involved and all have to be satisfied and sign off.

I think that the order simply indicates that space innovation is valuable to the nation and to humanity, just as not damaging the environment is. Both are deserving of regulatory recognition.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-...-industry/

I was struck by the text below, which I believe is aimed at the state of California. SpaceX and the Space Force really want to increase the launch cadence of Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base. But under the present regulatory regime, this falls under the perview of the California Coastal Commission. And the political appointees/environmental activists of the coastal commission really hate Elon for political reasons, so they denied the launch increase.

Quote:Sec. 4. Reforming Regulatory Barriers to Next Generation Spaceport Infrastructure. (a) The Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), shall, within 180 days of the date of this order, conduct an evaluation of relevant States’ compliance under the Coastal Zone Management Act pursuant to 16 U.S.C. 1458, the effect of any lack of compliance on the development of spaceport infrastructure, and whether State approvals under that Act should be revoked. The Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Administrator of NASA shall also notify the Department of Justice of any State or local limitations on spaceport development on Federal lands that may be inconsistent with Federal law.

That's not "wild west". That's just ensuring that political activists in California can't hold back national security and humanity's future in space just to spite a political enemy.

The Department of the Air Force (the Space Force's parent agency) has approved increasing Falcon launch cadence at Vandenberg Space Force Base to 100 launches/year. This will require building a second pad capable of launching both Falcon-9 and Falcon Heavy, along with two new RTLS (return to launch site) landing pads (for a total of three).

The environmental activists of the California Coastal Comission had previously rejected this, but since VSFB is a military base (even if it's right on the coast) the federal government decided that the Dept of the Air Force had jurisdiction.

https://www.vsfbfalconlauncheis.com/?utm...ovdelivery

(Oct 15, 2025 05:23 AM)Yazata Wrote: ...the federal government decided that the Dept of the Air Force had jurisdiction.

Good.

SpaceX already launches and lands Falcon 9's from Launch Complex 4 (near the top in the photo below)

The plan is to adapt Launch Complex 6 (red marker towards the bottom) to launch Falcon 9's and Falcon Heavy's, including two new landing pads for returning boosters.

The plan is to have the new pad ready by the start of 2027.