Once again, the Trump administration has proposed an $18.8B NASA budget that would make large cuts to science and STEM missions. And—once again—advocates and lawmakers are saying they won’t stand idly by while programs are gutted.
The IPO offered a prime opportunity for retail investors looking to ride the wave of US defense spending that’s been buoyed by the Trump administration’s promises of Golden Dome.
From the Trump administration’s efforts to cut red tape for space operators, to industry’s reaction to the acquisition plan for the ISS’ successor, here are some of the biggest space takeaways from the third day of the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Aerospace Summit.
A new caucus established this summer is aiming to educate lawmakers about Golden Dome and build a coalition to support the Trump administration’s proposed missile defense program.
The Trump administration’s first big change to the Artemis program is a plan to deliver a 100kw nuclear fission reactor to the lunar surface by 2030, with the job done almost entirely by the private sector.
Leaders at six of America’s biggest remote sensing firms are urging Congress to reject cuts proposed in the Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget plan—a proposal that would dramatically reduce the government’s purchasing of commercial EO data.
The deal comes at a critical time for US manufacturers, who are racing to onshore their supply chains in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs.
The Trump administration’s proposed budget for NASA focuses on beating China back to the Moon and sending the first humans to Mars at the expense of every other part of the space agency’s budget.
The Trump administration has ordered the Pentagon to speed up its defense acquisition process. That will require trained staff to quickly get new commercial tech under contract, according to Col. Richard Kniseley, the senior materiel leader of Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office.
“I’m very hopeful that the case the Space Force marks means a lot of that money will come back into our budget,” he said, adding that the Trump administration’s “Golden Dome” missile defense proposal could actually lead to national security space programs getting more resources.
Democratic lawmakers are sounding the alarm about SpaceX’s Starlink potentially winning a multi-billion FAA contract—a move that “would stink of corruption” because of Elon Musk’s position in the Trump administration, according to one member.
The Trump administration must engage China in orbit, opening a line for communication in case of emergencies such as deconflicting potential collisions in orbit, according to a report released Tuesday by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Most of the biggest space policy story lines of 2024 were actually about 2025, including how the incoming second Trump administration could reshape and prioritize space, the officials who will oversee those efforts, and some new faces on Capitol Hill as well.
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