At President Donald Trump’s inauguration, he promised the country his administration would take steps to plant the American flag on Mars. But this is nothing new to the private sector of the space industry; for years, companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Redwire, and others have been actively involved in leading space exploration.

Trump’s goals with NASA build on the direction the space industry has been headed for years. In 2017, the Artemis program launched with the goal of developing a sustainable presence on the moon and eventually making the journey to Mars. The program was a multinational effort, combining the resources of commercial and government partners.

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Mike Gold, president of civil international space business at Redwire and NASA’s former associate administrator for space policy, spoke to the Washington Examiner about the importance of private and public sector collaboration.

“I don’t think that you can be an effective government leader without a thorough understanding of the private sector. And conversely, I don’t think you can be effective in the private sector without having a thorough understanding of the government,” Gold said.

The Commercial Lunar Payload Services program has been a key arm of the Artemis Program to collaborate with the private sector.

Intuitive Machines was the first commercial company to land on the moon in February 2024 under CLPS. It represents just one instance of a commercial company taking a more active role in space exploration.

“There was a time when America was number one in commercial space launch, and we went from being number one to having only one commercial space,” Gold said. “Now we see Blue Origin coming into the scene where it’s created a whole new golden age of space, bringing jobs, innovation, and capabilities that we couldn’t even imagine a decade ago in America.”

In the past, the private sector occupied a supportive engineering role for NASA missions. Companies such as ICL Dover made the Apollo space suits, and without Motorola, we would never have heard Neil Armstrong’s famous quote when he stepped on the moon.

Now the commercial realm is taking a leading role in space exploration.

SpaceX and Northrop Grumman have largely taken over International Space Station resupply missions. NASA plans to replace the ISS entirely with a commercial space station by 2030.

The earning potential of being the first to establish a consistent presence in outer space is high. Companies such as iSpace and Intuitive Machines are working to establish a cis-lunar economy. They and other companies are racing to put a rover on the moon, collect samples, and sell those samples to NASA. They expect it to be the first transaction in the new market.

The transaction will also serve as proof of concept for transferring other valuable materials from the Moon to Earth. Rare earth minerals and substances such as Helium-3 are valuable to the United States and other countries. Around 25 tons of Helium-3 could power the U.S. for a year.

In further alignment with Trump’s energy goals, Sean Duffy, transportation secretary and acting NASA administrator, announced plans to build a nuclear power plant on the moon. The private sector is well-equipped to take on the risk of enacting such a large project.

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“During some large government failures, very few people lost their jobs. Things don’t go well in the private sector. We all lose our jobs. And that safety is job one and as important to us as to the government, because without safety we have no business,” Gold said.

NASA was able to dodge cuts in Trump’s marquee “big, beautiful bill,” and indeed, the agency gained $10 billion. This bodes well for companies looking to partner in Trump’s ambitious goal and could mean Mars is an attainable goal sooner than previously expected.