The Trump Administration deserves credit for its National Space Transportation Policy, which calls for more than 1,000 U.S. launches and reentries a year by 2030, cementing American leadership in space for a generation. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is right to ask what it will take to get there, including the radio spectrum that rockets and aircraft depend on for communications, tracking and telemetry.

However, buried inside this same review is a petition that has nothing to do with expanding opportunity, and everything to do with a land grab. A commercial space trade group, the Commercial Space Federation (CSF), is petitioning to dismantle the longstanding coordination system used to manage spectrum for flight testing of America’s fighters, bombers, missiles, passenger jets, and advanced air mobility systems. The FCC should reject this petition outright. 

When the astronauts aboard Artemis II became the first mission to fly by the Moon in 50 years, they became instant heroes. President Trump rightly honored them over the weekend for their achievement. While they were the focus of the ceremony, Trump made headlines by announcing a new service academy. If the U.S. is to win this next space race, it must take this project seriously.

Recently, President Trump spoke at a ceremony honoring the astronauts who crewed Artemis II, the first voyage to circle the Moon in 50 years. Aside from the awards, Trump announced his intention to create a new service academy for the United States Space Force. Where and when this academy will operate remains to be seen, but this is the latest acknowledgement of space’s growing importance, both militarily and otherwise.