The National Space Transportation Policy

Key Points

• The policy sets a national goal of supporting more than 1,000 space launches and reentries per year by 2030, aiming to strengthen U.S. economic and national security interests in space.
• Agencies must speed up permitting and environmental reviews for launch facilities and make it easier for commercial companies to use federal launch and reentry sites.
• The Interior Department must identify new federal land for spacecraft reentry, and Transportation must work to fold rocket launches into national air traffic control modernization.
• Government satellites and payloads generally must launch on U.S.-built rockets, and agencies are told to buy commercial launch services rather than compete with private companies.
• NASA is directed to build a plan for regular commercial trips to the Moon and to explore commercial paths for sending humans to Mars and bringing them home.
• The memo explicitly states it creates no enforceable legal rights for outside parties and depends on existing agency authority and available funding.