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Guenther for The Hill: Trump’s tariffs may hold back his own ambitions in space

  • April 12, 2025
  • Mary Guenther

The space industry was ecstatic to get a shout-out in President Trump’s first Joint Address to Congress. It appeared to be a signal that his administration was going to prioritize space issues, as it had during Trump’s first term, when significant attention was paid to ensuring the competitiveness of the space industry.

Unfortunately, the ever-evolving tariff regime is set to have the opposite effect. It will raise the cost of making rockets and satellites in the U.S., limit industry access to core inputs and materials and encourage boycotts of American products and services abroad.

To begin with, while the space industry relies primarily on domestic manufacturing, given its current orientation towards government customers, it buys many raw inputs and certain key components from allied nations.

Aluminum and steel, which have been singled out within the tariff regime, are used extensively by the space industry. Increased costs or shortages will directly affect the industry’s ability to deliver spacecraft, rockets, satellites and more on time and on budget. Canada alone supplies more than half of the aluminum Americans use.

This goes for NASA missions just as it does for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which uses aluminum and steel for engines, propellant tanks, rocket bodies, and more.

Read more in The Hill. 

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