US 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, Reuters reports.
The order, issued hours after billionaire private astronaut and former SpaceX customer Jared Isaacman was sworn in as NASA's 15th administrator, also reorganized national space policy coordination under Trump's chief science adviser, Michael Kratsios.
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.
It appeared to cancel the White House's top space policy-coordinating body, the National Space Council, a panel of cabinet members that the president revived during his first term and has considered axing this year.
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.
