SpaceX Falcon 9 launch (February 26, 2025) [Reuters=Yonhap News file photo]

The U.S. government is pushing a plan to significantly increase the number of commercial space launches and re-entries to 1,000 per year by 2030.

According to Reuters, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on "The National Space Transportation Policy" on the 20th (local time), which includes policy directives aimed at fostering the commercial space industry.

The memorandum instructs government agencies to identify federal lands that can be designated as candidate sites for new re-entry facilities.

Candidate site identification must be completed within 90 days of the memorandum's signing, and development plans must be established within 240 days.

President Trump also directed federal departments and agencies to develop measures, including policy-making, to secure space on federal land for building launch site infrastructure.

He ordered government agencies, except in cases where it is necessary for public safety or national security, to refrain from conducting government space transportation activities that "exclude, impair, or compete with U.S. commercial space transportation activities."

The policy memorandum also includes provisions encouraging the government to jointly develop space transportation infrastructure with private sector partners, calls for the acceleration of licensing and environmental reviews, and mandates that sufficient radio frequency bands be secured for space launches.

Starship rocket [Courtesy of SpaceX, Reuters=Yonhap News file photo] 

President Trump further instructed NASA to facilitate commercial transportation to and from the Moon, support commercial robotic exploration of Mars, and review commercial approaches for sending humans to Mars.

NASA is currently pursuing plans to land astronauts on the lunar surface through the 'Artemis IV' mission in early 2028.

Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, explained that the new National Space Transportation Policy is designed to "ensure that the U.S. can lead the next space era in line with the current explosive growth."

He explained that through the 'commercial first' approach contained in the policy memorandum, the U.S. intends to send American astronauts to the Moon by 2028 and establish "initial elements of a lunar base" by 2030.

Of the 178 commercial space launches conducted in the U.S. last year, 170 were carried out by SpaceX.

Of SpaceX's 170 launches last year, 165 used the Falcon 9 rocket, while the remaining 5 used the Starship rocket currently under development; these launches deployed approximately 2,500 satellites.

In May of this year, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Brian Bedford stated that he had been told by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell that SpaceX had set a goal to increase annual launches to 10,000 within five years.

Additionally, in January of this year, SpaceX unveiled a plan to launch 1 million satellites that would orbit Earth and utilize solar energy to provide power to artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.