I recently reported that billionaire entrepreneur and “Polaris” astronaut Jared Isaacman officially took the helm at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Isaacman’s plans include lunar landings, Mars missions, and more private-public partnerships for America’s space goals.
Now, President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order that pairs well with Isaacman’s confirmation. Trump’s new “Ensuring American Space Superiority” plans lay out a broad, long‑term strategy that includes getting American astronauts to the Moon by 2028.
President Donald Trump enshrined the U.S. goal to put humans back on the moon by 2028 and defend space from weapon threats in a sweeping executive order issued on Thursday, 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 national space policy coordination under Trump’s chief science adviser, Michael Kratsios.Titled “ENSURING AMERICAN SPACE SUPERIORITY,” the order calls on the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies to create a space security strategy, urges efficiency among private contractors and seeks demonstrations of missile-defense technologies under Trump’s Golden Dome program.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall my reports related to Trump’s plans for “Golden Dome” missile defense. The most recent coverage noted Lockheed Martin is preparing to conduct an on‑orbit test of a space‑based anti‑missile interceptor win a 2028 timeframe.
There has been progress in this program as well. Lockheed Martin and other companies were awarded the first contracts to develop boost phase space-based interceptors for Golden Dome.
Northrop Grumman, Anduril, Lockheed Martin and True Anomaly were awarded the first contracts to develop boost phase space-based interceptors for Golden Dome, SatNews reported in a Dec. 11 article. These awards were valued between $9 and $10 million per company.SatNews believes Anduril receiving an award along with traditional primes Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin demonstrates the DOW’s “buy vs. build” procurement strategy for Golden Dome. This should deprioritize the strict multi-year cycles found in traditional defense contracting in favor of speed and innovation preferred under the second Trump administration.These prototypes will compete for production contracts in coming years that could be worth billions of dollars.
Returning to the news related to Trump’s new executive order includes an emphasis on nuclear power.
“Ensuring American Space Superiority” lists as a priority the deployment of nuclear reactors in Earth orbit and on the moon, and states that one such facility should be ready to launch toward the lunar surface by 2030.These goals aren’t terribly surprising. For example, NASA is already working toward a 2028 crewed moon landing via its Artemis program, which also aims to set up one or more bases near the lunar south pole over the ensuing years.The agency has also been developing a potential fission reactor for use on the moon for several years now, with the goal of deploying it in the early 2030s. And a few months ago, we got wind of the more aggressive 2030 timeline for this power source, via a directive from then-NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy.
However, among all these goals, perhaps the most eagerly awaited one is the Artemis mission to land a team on the Moon. The objective will be to complete this action item before Trump’s second term ends.
The Artemis program began in the first Trump Administration with the goal of getting Americans back on the Moon by 2024. Viewed by most as unrealistic, the date for the landing on Artemis III unsurprisingly slipped to 2027 during Biden’s term. Setbacks with development of SpaceX’s Starship, which will serve as the Human Landing System (HLS) to get astronauts down to and back from the surface, began casting doubt on that date, too. Republicans and Democrats on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are united in their determination to get Americans back on the Moon before China puts taikonauts there, which it plans to do by 2030.Whether the EO’s date of 2028 is achievable remains to be seen, but Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who has been dual-hatted as Acting NASA Administrator until today, recently vowed that Americans would be on the Moon before Trump’s term ends on January 20, 2029. Duffy reopened the HLS contract to determine if there’s any other company that can develop a lander sooner, but it’s a tall order.
In conclusion, “Ensuring American Space Superiority” is an ambitious long-term strategy to keep our nation leading in space exploration, security, and commerce, with Artemis and a 2028 crewed moon landing as centerpiece goals. It links lunar return, future lunar outposts, and eventual Mars missions to national strength and prosperity, while also pushing for faster national security space capabilities and a thriving commercial space sector.
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