President Donald J. Trump issued a directive on Thursday ordering federal agencies to further deregulate space travel, allowing more private companies to enhance the space program.
“The United States is the greatest spacefaring nation on the planet,” Scott Pace the executive secretary of the National Space Council said in comments to reporters on Thursday before the signing ceremony. “President Trump recognizes that space is crucial to our security, economy, and international leadership.”
Trump is expected to sign the directive on Thursday morning and is the second document of recommendations released by the White House.
White House officials said that the directive is part of Trump’s effort to build up America’s leadership in space, through stronger and streamlined partnerships with private companies.
“Budgets are limited and this is not going to be a Cold War race where we drop almost unlimited amounts of money on a problem,” an administration official said to Breitbart News.
The official explained that America would continue to dominate space through the private sector economy and that the president understood that deregulation was an important part of that.
The directive orders the Secretary of Transportation to reform the permitting system for launch and re-entry operations into a single license and asks the Commerce Secretary to review “commercial remote sensing” regulations. It also directs the FCC to draft a report to improve space radio frequency policies.
“The President is committed to ensuring that the Federal government gets out of the way and unleashes private enterprise to support the economic success of the United States,” the document reads.
Trump’s signing ceremony was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. EST and was closed to the press.