YES: America Must Be Able to Restore Its Space Power at War Speed.

The White House’s new National Security Science and Technology Strategy identifies space as one of only three priority areas, alongside undersea capabilities and artificial intelligence and autonomy, for U.S. “battlefield dominance and power projection.” It calls for clear U.S. technological superiority from very low Earth orbit through cislunar space, the area between Earth and the moon.

The administration also released an updated National Space Transportation Policy, replacing guidance issued in 2013. The Obama-era policy already called for responsive, resilient access to space and rapid restoration of capabilities during conflict. The Trump update goes further, explicitly linking rapid and resilient access to space to U.S. space superiority. It calls for space ranges to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries annually by 2030 and directs the Pentagon to evaluate barriers to supporting high-priority national security launches within 48 hours of need, including from expeditionary locations.

Those goals matter because China is building capabilities both to exploit space and to deny it to the United States. The Pentagon assesses that Beijing is developing jammers, lasers, anti-satellite missiles, and on-orbit systems intended to restrict U.S. access to space during conflict. China also operates more than 500 satellites that contribute to a broader “sensor-shooter kill web” architecture used to locate forward-deployed U.S. and allied forces. Beijing is also rapidly scaling its ability to put new capabilities into orbit; targeting 140 launches in 2026, a 52 percent increase from 2025.

With China improving both its space and counterspace capabilities, U.S. space superiority cannot rest solely on having better satellites. Washington also needs the ability to rapidly replace or augment critical capabilities when satellites or supporting infrastructure are disrupted.

We haven’t had a White House this serious about national defense — or more forward-looking about it — since Reagan.