The commercial space industry exemplified by Elon Musk’s SpaceX could be exempted from certain environmental reviews and freed from some other regulatory restraints under an ambitious-sounding executive order signed by President Trump on Wednesday.
Citing a need to “streamline” U.S.-based space operations that he termed “critical to economic growth [and] national security,” Trump’s executive order directs federal agencies to assess for possible revision a variety of requirements currently imposed on rocket-launching companies.
Notably, the executive order directs the Transportation Department to “eliminate or expedite the [department’s] environmental reviews for, and other obstacles” to the granting of launch and reentry licenses and permits.
“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, Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy declared in a statement.
The order specifies that the Transportation Department will evaluate which space operations might be deemed not subject to the National Environmental Policy Act. The order calls, as well, for a variety of other measures that taken together alarm conservation advocates who have been monitoring the environmental consequences of rocket launches.
“This reckless order puts people and wildlife at risk from private companies launching giant rockets that often explode and wreak devastation on surrounding areas,” said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Margolis added that “bending the knee to powerful corporations by allowing federal agencies to ignore bedrock environmental laws is incredibly dangerous and puts all of us in harm’s way.”
The environmental organization is suing the Federal Aviation Administration over its green light to SpaceX launches in Boca Chica, Texas. The FAA approved SpaceX’s plan to test and launch 10 rockets per year over a five-year period, along with related construction activities, without requiring a thorough environmental impact statement.
The environmental group also opposed Air Force plans to conduct SpaceX cargo rocket-landing tests in the ecologically unique Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, which is located in the Pacific Ocean. The Air Force was in the midst of a routine environmental assessment when it abruptly canceled plans and announced it would consider other test sites.
The new executive order does not specifically name Musk’s SpaceX, billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin or any other company in the rocket-launching business. Spokespersons for SpaceX and Blue Origin could not be immediately reached Thursday.
In 2024, EPA under the Biden administration fined SpaceX nearly $150,000 for releasing liquid oxygen and tens of thousands of gallons of water into wetlands bordering a launch site on several occasions without a permit.
The Trump executive order is not retroactive, Margolis noted in an interview, so it would affect only future projects. It gives the Transportation Department 120 days to “reevaluate, amend, or rescind” relevant portions of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations that set requirements for obtaining a license needed to launch or reenter a space vehicle.
Enumerated in Part 450 of Title 14, these include a mandate that the license applicant “satisfy the environmental review requirements” for either an environmental assessment or a full-bore environmental impact statement.
The executive order also seeks to streamline construction of what it calls “spaceports.” Multiple federal agencies including the Interior Department are directed to “expedite their respective environmental and administrative reviews” for a spaceport project.
The SpaceX spaceport project in Texas is already a going concern and thus would not immediately be affected by the new executive order, Margolis said.
In case future spaceport projects encounter conflicts with the Endangered Species Act, the executive order tells agencies to consider appealing to the so-called “God Squad,” a rarely invoked multi-agency committee empowered to overturn ESA protections on the basis of a project’s economic benefits.
