Trump’s space transportation policy calls for new spaceport on federal land

特朗普的太空运输政策呼吁在联邦土地上建设新航天港

A new national space transportation policy signed by President Donald Trump on Thursday calls for the development of more spaceports to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries per year by 2030. The presidential memorandum replaces a 2013 policy signed by former President Barack Obama. Both policies share an emphasis on supporting the commercial space industry and underscore the importance of assured access to space. 唐纳德·特朗普总统周四签署了一项新的国家太空运输政策，要求开发更多的航天港，以支持到2030年每年超过1000次的发射和再入任务。这份总统备忘录取代了前总统巴拉克·奥巴马于2013年签署的政策。两项政策都强调支持商业航天工业，并突显了确保进入太空的重要性。

But the launch sector has changed immensely since then. There were 176 orbital launch attempts from US soil last year, nearly 10 times the number in 2013. SpaceX led the pack last year with 165 orbital launches of its Falcon 9 rocket, plus five suborbital test flights of the much larger Starship. 但自那时以来，发射领域发生了巨大的变化。去年，美国本土进行了176次轨道发射尝试，几乎是2013年的10倍。SpaceX公司去年以165次“猎鹰9号”火箭轨道发射领跑，此外还进行了5次规模更大的“星舰”亚轨道测试飞行。

“By 2030, our space transportation ranges must grow to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries every year,” the policy says. “The policies set forth in this memorandum will secure America’s continued superiority in space.” The projected surge is driven by commercial and military demand for communications services, overhead surveillance, space-based targeting, and orbital data centers. 该政策指出：“到2030年，我们的太空运输靶场必须发展到每年支持超过1000次发射和再入任务。本备忘录中提出的政策将确保美国在太空领域的持续优势。”这一预期的激增是由商业和军事对通信服务、高空监视、天基目标定位以及轨道数据中心的需求所驱动的。

Schedule transparency

日程透明度

The most notable updates to the national space transportation policy focus on increasing the country’s ability to enable those lofty forecasts. The Trump administration calls on the Pentagon and NASA to “prioritize and coordinate on infrastructure investments” to boost launch and reentry capacity and flexibility at federal launch and reentry ranges. 国家太空运输政策中最显著的更新集中在提高国家实现这些宏伟预测的能力上。特朗普政府呼吁五角大楼和美国国家航空航天局（NASA）“优先考虑并协调基础设施投资”，以提升联邦发射和再入靶场的发射与再入能力及灵活性。

These federal spaceports include Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, which sit on adjoining property in Florida. The others are Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, and NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Only the Florida and California spaceports are currently outfitted for heavy-lift launches. 这些联邦航天港包括位于佛罗里达州相邻地块的卡纳维拉尔角太空军基地和NASA肯尼迪航天中心。其他航天港还包括加利福尼亚州的范登堡太空军基地和弗吉尼亚州的NASA瓦勒普斯飞行中心。目前，只有佛罗里达州和加利福尼亚州的航天港具备重型运载火箭的发射能力。

The policy document supports more efficient range scheduling criteria at federally owned spaceports, balancing the needs of commercial users and US government missions. It also directs the military and NASA to “regularly publish range schedules to ensure transparent allocation of resources and optimize launch capacity.” Today, the schedules for most rocket launches are not public until a few days or weeks in advance. 该政策文件支持在联邦所有的航天港采用更高效的靶场调度标准，以平衡商业用户和美国政府任务的需求。它还指示军方和NASA“定期发布靶场日程，以确保资源分配的透明度并优化发射能力”。目前，大多数火箭发射的日程直到发射前几天或几周才会公开。

The government will also identify potential locations for additional launch facilities in the United States, improve integration of space launch and reentry operations into airspace and air traffic control modernization efforts, and designate “priority airspace for critical space launch corridors.” More specifically, the White House is directing the Department of the Interior to identify federal lands to serve as an additional designated federal land reentry site. 政府还将确定美国境内其他发射设施的潜在选址，改善太空发射和再入操作与空域及空中交通管制现代化工作的整合，并指定“关键太空发射走廊的优先空域”。更具体地说，白宫正指示内政部确定联邦土地，作为额外的指定联邦土地再入点。

This comes after the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a request for public comment last month regarding the potential use of submerged lands and abandoned offshore oil rigs for sea-based space launches and reentry activities. 在此之前，内政部海洋能源管理局上个月就利用水下土地和废弃海上石油钻井平台进行海上太空发射和再入活动的可能性，征求了公众意见。

Geographic resiliency

地理韧性

This section of the directive appears to endorse the results of a recent Pentagon study that identified the need for the government to have a third heavy-lift launch site in the United States. The report hasn’t been released, but Air Force Secretary Troy Meink described the finding in a May hearing before the House Armed Services Committee. 该指令的这一部分似乎认可了五角大楼最近的一项研究结果，该研究指出政府有必要在美国境内拥有第三个重型运载火箭发射场。这份报告尚未发布，但空军部长特洛伊·梅因克（Troy Meink）在5月份众议院军事委员会的听证会上描述了这一发现。

“At a high level, what it says is we probably need another site that’s capable of heavy and super heavy launch capability, both from a resiliency perspective and just, even at the Cape, limitations on how much space we’ve got,” Meink said. 梅因克表示：“从宏观层面来看，它表明我们可能需要另一个具备重型和超重型发射能力的场地，这既是出于韧性的考虑，也是因为即使在卡纳维拉尔角，我们的空间也有限。”

At that time, Space Force officials said they projected a combined 700 launches per year from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg by 2036. Those numbers don’t include launches from private or state-owned spaceports, such as SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas or the company’s plan for another spaceport for Starship in Louisiana. SpaceX is also building launch pads for Starship on federal property at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center. 当时，太空军官员表示，预计到2036年，卡纳维拉尔角和范登堡每年的发射总数将达到700次。这些数字不包括来自私人或州属航天港的发射，例如SpaceX在德克萨斯州的星际基地（Starbase），或该公司计划在路易斯安那州为“星舰”建设的另一个航天港。SpaceX目前也在卡纳维拉尔角和肯尼迪航天中心的联邦土地上为“星舰”建造发射台。

“We’re going to have to increase the capacity,” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force’s top general, in the same hearing in May. “And then, maybe connected to that, is the geographic resiliency that you might need to have separate launch locations and not be so tied to just the two specific launch ports that we have.” “我们必须提高运力，”太空军最高将领钱斯·萨尔茨曼（Chance Saltzman）将军在5月份的同一场听证会上说。“此外，与之相关的可能是地理韧性，你可能需要拥有独立的发射地点，而不是仅仅依赖我们现有的两个特定发射港。”

Another element of the new space transportation policy aims for more responsive launch operations, such as putting high-priority payloads into orbit within 48 hours of need, potentially from “expeditionary locations” far away from conventional launch ranges. Some companies, like Rocket Lab and Astra, are already working on portable launch infrastructure. 新太空运输政策的另一个要素旨在实现更具响应性的发射操作，例如在有需求后的48小时内将高优先级载荷送入轨道，这可能通过远离传统发射靶场的“远征地点”来实现。一些公司，如火箭实验室（Rocket Lab）和Astra，已经在研发便携式发射基础设施。

The memo also supports NASA’s ongoing work on commercial transportation to and from the Moon, and directs the agency to support future commercial robotic and human expeditions to Mars. The government is already pursuing other tenets of the national space transportation policy, such as facilitating more access for commercial users at federal ranges, expediting permitting and environmental reviews, and charging user fees to commercial launch companies operating out of NASA or US military spaceports. 该备忘录还支持NASA正在进行的往返月球的商业运输工作，并指示该机构支持未来前往火星的商业机器人和载人探险任务。政府已经在推行国家太空运输政策的其他原则，例如为商业用户在联邦靶场提供更多准入机会、加快许可和环境审查，以及向在NASA或美国军事航天港运营的商业发射公司收取使用费。