Trump’s Executive Order To Slash Environmental Regulations For Space Launches: We Look At The Risks And Realities

The executive order called on the Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to “use all available authorities to eliminate or expedite the Department of Transportation’s environmental reviews for, and other obstacles to the granting of, launch and reentry licenses and permits.”

“People think the Department of Transportation (DOT) is just planes, trains, and automobiles – but we have a critical role to play in unlocking the final frontier,” Duffy, who is also the current acting head of NASA, said in a statement. “By slashing red tape tying up spaceport construction, streamlining launch licenses so they can occur at scale, and creating high-level space positions in government, we can unleash the next wave of innovation. At NASA, this means continuing to work with commercial space companies and improving our spaceports’ ability to launch.”

However, not only do current environmental protections around spaceports not hinder the space industry, commercial or otherwise, but removing regulations could prove an environmental disaster. 

Nature And Rockets Actually Coexist Very Well

We might think that the space industry, one of the most advanced technology industries on Earth, and the natural world are polar opposites. The reality is that there is an unlikely coexistence, which is often beneficial. Many species actually end up thriving in environments surrounding spaceports, as IFLScience discovered in an investigation last year. 

Kennedy [Space Center] is responsible for more protected species than any other federal property in the continental United States.

Donald Dankert

The US’s main spaceport, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, shares a border with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Together they are home to over 1,000 species of plants, 117 species of fish, 68 amphibian and reptile species, 330 birds, and 31 different mammal species.

“Kennedy is responsible for more protected species than any other federal property in the continental United States,” Donald Dankert, the Chief of Kennedy’s Environmental Management Branch, told IFLScience.

And it’s not just NASA. Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, possesses every single type of habitat found in the South American region, from rainforest to savannah. Researchers have found jaguars, pumas, giant ants, peccaries, curassows, deer, and ocelots around the Spaceport. Who can forget Gerard the sloth photobombing the launch of the JUICE mission?

“Today, the base is home to more than 500 species of bird, nearly 100 species of fish, and more than 1,000 catalogued species of plant (lianas, trees, herbaceous plants, orchids, carnivorous plants, etc.), including protected species,” Dr Camille Bonhomme, Doctor of Ecology and CNES Environmental Engineer, told IFLScience.

The reason for this coexistence is that space facilities only need a small launch area, and most of the space is a buffer zone. Nature can make those zones as wild as it wants, and continuous monitoring in line with current regulations has demonstrated that the impact of launches doesn’t affect the species living in there or the people outside, which could have been a big problem for the space industry. However, with the successes demonstrated by both NASA and ESA, it is difficult to argue that the space industry is being hindered by environmental regulations and that progress is only possible by removing these protections. 

Space: Final Frontier Or Wild West?

The licenses to launch satellites and spacecraft in space are under the remit of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA also needs to guarantee that the public, property, and the environment are kept safe during the launches and testing. These regulations have led some people, like SpaceX founder Elon Musk, to complain about “government oversight”.

In particular, there have been significant points of contention regarding the protection of wildlife habitats near SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas, the emission of greenhouse gases, how SpaceX was fined for polluting water, and the numerous investigations by the FAA that took place whenever there was a launch mishap, which has long been standard for any launch. In January 2025, the former FAA Administrator quit.

SpaceX has not had a particularly favorable year since. Starship, its revolutionary vehicle that should bring astronauts back to the Moon (and onto Mars in 2028, according to Musk’s latest bombastic plan), continues to explode. Flight 7 and Flight 8 ended up with Starship exploding just minutes after launch, raining debris onto Caribbean islands. In Flight 9, Starship managed to get back to space, but the craft was lost in reentry. Even a static test on the ground led to an incredible explosion just a few months ago. 

“The FAA strongly supports President Trump’s Executive Order to make sure the U.S. leads the growing space economy and continues to lead the world in space transportation and innovation,” said the new FAA Administrator, Bryan Bedford. “This order safely removes regulatory barriers so that U.S. companies can dominate commercial space activities.”

According to the executive order, whether to consider environmental protections should be weighed up with the importance of what it refers to as “national security” imperatives. Under the “Reforming Regulatory Barriers to Next Generation Spaceport Infrastructure” section, it reads: 

“The Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Administrator of NASA shall, mindful of the significant national security imperatives inherent in commercial space advancement, consider for all spaceport development projects whether to submit an application to the Endangered Species Committee pursuant to 16 U.S.C. 1536(e),” the EO reads under the “Reforming Regulatory Barriers to Next Generation Spaceport Infrastructure section”. 

It is true that the space industry is an extremely important and valuable sector for the US, one that it leads in. At the same time, the Trump administration has slashed the funding for NASA missions in its proposed budget, as well as cutting more fundamental research, which underpins the ability to have a thriving public and private sector. Relying heavily on commercial space companies also makes the US vulnerable. Just this year, Musk threatened to withdraw the use of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, currently the only way to get to the ISS from the US, after a feud with Trump. 

As experts are pointing out, however, encouraging the commercial space industry doesn’t have to come at the expense of removing regulations, especially environmental ones that have not so far impaired it.