WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) – 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.
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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.
But an adminitration official said it would not be cancelled and suggested it would live on under the White House’s Office of Technology Policy with a different structure in which the president, rather than the vice president, would be chairman.
The goal to land humans on the moon by the end of Trump’s second term in 2028 bears resemblance to the president’s 2019 directive in his first term to make a lunar return by 2024, putting the moon at the center of U.S. space exploration policy with a timeline many in the industry regarded as unrealistic.
Development and testing delays with NASA’s Space Launch System and SpaceX’s Starship gradually pushed that landing target date back.
NASA’s goal had been 2028 under former president Barack Obama.
LUNAR OUTPOST BY 2030
A 2028 astronaut moon landing would be the first of many planned under NASA’s Artemis effort to build a long-term presence on the lunar surface. The U.S. is in competition with China, which is targeting 2030 for its first crewed moon landing.
The order on Thursday called for “establishment of initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030,” reinforcing NASA’s existing goal to develop long-term bases with nuclear power sources.
At the start of his second term, Trump had repeatedly talked about sending missions to Mars as Elon Musk, a major donor who has made sending humans to the Red Planet a priority for his company SpaceX, served a stint as a close adviser and powerful government efficiency czar.
But lawmakers in Congress this year have slowly put the moon back in focus, pressuring then-NASA nominee Isaacman to stick with the agency’s moon program on which billions of dollars have been spent.
The White House, in a government efficiency push led by Musk, slashed NASA’s workforce by 20% and has sought to cut the agency’s 2026 budget by roughly 25% from its usual $25 billion, imperiling dozens of space-science programs that scientists and some officials regard as priorities.
Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Nia Williams and Stephen Coates
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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