If there was ever any doubt about the Trump administration’s enthusiasm for space, it was swept aside by the August 20 release of the new National Space Transportation Policy. The wide-ranging plans lay out a roadmap for the policy and physical infrastructure to support a goal of 1,000 annual launches by 2030. On Capitol Hill, the U.S. Space Force shared a FY 2027 budget request that represents a 120% increase over its FY 2026 request. Outside the U.S., the EU levied sanctions on several leaders of Russia’s space industry, Space Force launched its second satellite on a Japanese rocket and China’s space program experienced another launch failure.

All this and more in this edition of Akin’s Space Law, Regulation and Policy Update.