Trump orders easing of commercial spaceflight regulations, in boon to Musk's SpaceX

Washington: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to streamline federal regulation governing commercial rocket launches, a move that would benefit Elon Musk's SpaceX and other private space ventures.

Trump's order, among other things, directs the US transportation secretary to eliminate or expedite environmental reviews for launch licenses administered by the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House said in a statement.

The declaration also calls on the secretary to do away with "outdated, redundant or overly restrictive rules for launch and reentry vehicles."

"Inefficient permitting processes discourage investment and innovation, limiting the ability of U.S. companies to lead in global space markets," the executive order states.

It added: "Overly complex environmental and other licensing and permitting regulations slow down commercial space launches and infrastructure development, and benefit entrenched incumbents (who can afford to bear the expense of regulatory compliance) over new market entrants (who cannot)."

Although Musk and Trump have remained embroiled in a high-profile feud for months, the billionaire entrepreneur's SpaceX rocket and satellite venture potentially stands to be the single biggest immediate beneficiary of Trump's order on Wednesday.

SpaceX, although not mentioned by name in the executive order, easily leads all other US space industry entities, including NASA, in the sheer number of launches it routinely conducts.

Musk has complained that environmental impact reviews and post-flight mishap investigations have repeatedly slowed down testing of SpaceX's ambitious new Starship rocket vehicle, under development at the company's South Texas launch facility.