Editor's Choice: A look ahead to 2028

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By Mike Gruss

Some of the nation’s most ambitious space programs are racing toward the same deadline: 2028. This week, SpaceNews published a series of stories on what’s in store.

For the Space Force, 2028 is something of a show-me year for the Pentagon’s military space ambitions, Sandra Erwin reported. That year will serve as a test of whether capabilities that have spent much of this decade in development can make the jump into orbit and, in some cases, into military operations.

There’s also the Golden Dome program. When President Trump unveiled the initiative in May 2025, he said Golden Dome should be fully operational before his term ends in January 2029. The Pentagon has since laid out a more limited near-term objective, with initial capabilities targeted for 2028 and a more comprehensive architecture extending well into the next decade.

For NASA, 2028 is a chance to define a generation of space exploration, Jeff Foust reported.

NASA's plans now include two crewed lunar landings in 2028 along with about 10 robotic landings.

NASA has launched at most four robotic landers in a single year, in 1967 with the Surveyor program, and has not yet launched one this year. SR-1 is also scheduled to launch in late 2028 during a narrow window that also includes launches of NASA’s Mars Telecommunications Orbiter and the NASA-sponsored Rosalind Franklin Mars rover from ESA.

That urgency, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman argued, is needed to combat an “institutional inertia” he said has plagued NASA for decades, returning the agency to an Apollo-era mindset amid a new space race with China.

That push for 2028, of course, would also allow the Trump administration to take a victory lap for what would be among the most consequential acts in space for decades, and provide a crowning achievement for Isaacman. However, some say the most difficult tasks — including a number of firsts — remain. Others argue that trying to reach so many milestones by 2028 can put strains on the agency and industry, and that cracks are already starting to show.

Then there’s the commercial weather program at NOAA. Commercial weather satellite operators are watching the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2028 budget request for signs the agency is prepared to expand its purchases of commercial data.

Although NOAA’s Commercial Data Program (CDP) budget has grown in recent years, Debra Werner's reporting shows that industry executives are calling for a substantial increase in the administration’s 2028 budget request, saying it's needed to persuade investors to finance additional commercial weather satellites.

It’s all … a lot.

With roughly two years to go, the clock is ticking.

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