Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX, has long criticized the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for “regulatory overreach.”
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued an executive order to eliminate several environmental regulations to make way for more rocket launches, in a boost to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its rivals.
The White House said that the executive order aimed to “streamline regulations and foster a competitive commercial space industry, ensuring the United States maintains its leading role in the commercial use of space.”
The order also directed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who is also the head of NASA, to review regulatory requirements to “eliminate outdated, redundant, or overly restrictive” rules for launch and reentry vehicles.
“President Trump has unleashed commercial space by cutting red tape while preserving safety checks,” Duffy, who was present at the signing of the order, wrote later on X.
The Trump administration’s latest move is likely to prove a boon for SpaceX, which was responsible for nearly half of all orbital launches in 2024. Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX, has long criticized the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for “regulatory overreach.” Unlike most of its risk-averse industry peers, SpaceX follows the “fail fast, learn faster” approach, prioritizing learning from its mistakes and quickly moving on to the next test.
Earlier this year, the FAA had grounded Starship test flights for nearly two months after back-to-back post-launch explosions caused debris to fall at Caribbean islands and forced dozens of commercial airliners to divert.
The move will also benefit SpaceX’s rivals, including Rocket Lab, the United Launch Alliance, and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, all of which are vying for a larger share of the commercial launch market. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits about Rocket Labs was in the ‘bullish’ territory at the time of writing.
“Look at the Trump effect on the nuclear and rare earth mining sectors. Now it is coming to the space sector,” one user wrote.
On Wednesday, Trump also ordered the easing of restrictions around Spaceport developments, which would mean that companies could develop more launch sites. The bulk of the launches in the U.S. takes place at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SpaceX would likely take advantage of the easing of restrictions to increase the number of Starship launches, the heaviest rocket ever built, which is expected to play a pivotal role in future manned missions to the Moon and Mars.
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