TAMPA, Fla. — The White House has issued an executive order aiming to unify and accelerate U.S. development of quantum technologies, including space systems that could enable next-generation navigation, sensing and secure communications.
The “Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation” order, signed by U.S. President Donald Trump June 22, gives NASA 120 days to submit a five-year plan for “developing and extending civilian quantum sensing and networking for space applications.”
Other agencies were also tasked with producing five-year plans to translate atomic-scale physics into federally backed research and applications.
The order directs the Department of War to identify at least three next-generation quantum sensor projects within 60 days to prioritize for fielding by Sept. 30, 2028.
It also establishes the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science effort, or QC-ADDS, to develop a quantum computer for scientific applications.
“This national effort shall pursue development of a quantum computer at a scale intended to initiate the era of quantum-enabled scientific discovery,” the order stated, “with the intent to deliver at least one such computer to a Department of Energy facility and, to the extent possible, make it available to the scientific community.”
Trump also signed a separate executive order directing federal agencies to strengthen cryptographic protections for the country’s sensitive data, critical infrastructure and digital economy against threats posed by future quantum computers.
Industry collaboration
The executive orders came shortly after U.S.-based quantum technology firm Infleqtion announced America’s Quantum Space Initiative, an industry coalition aiming to advance demonstrations to operational capability.
Founding partners include Voyager Technologies, Armada, Monarch Quantum and the University of Colorado Boulder.
“Quantum is moving fast, and so is the competition,” said Matt Kinsella, Infleqtion’s CEO.
“The science is proven and the systems are coming. We are grateful to President Trump for making American quantum leadership a national priority today, because the time to act is now.”
Infleqtion has been working with NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for about a decade, including on foundational components for the Cold Atom Lab, a facility launched to the International Space Station in 2018 to study quantum behavior in ultra-cold gases.
Kinsella said the company aims to deploy a quantum gravity gradiometer with NASA and JPL before the end of the decade to measure tiny changes in gravity from orbit, enabling more precise space situational awareness and data on and below Earth’s surface.
“We’re not talking percentage improvements,” he told SpaceNews, “these are 10x to 1,000x improvement in precision when you swap [existing] sensors to quantum sensors.”
Years of experimentation have “verified that quantum in space is important and it’s real,” he said, laying the foundation for a more coordinated push to turn the technology into operational infrastructure.
While quantum sensing is likely to mature first in space via capabilities such as Infleqtion’s gravity gradiometer, according to Kinsella, he said secure communications and advanced atomic clocks are likely to follow to greatly improve timing and navigation.
“I think it’ll be a while before we see quantum computers in space,” he added. “We need to make them useful here on planet Earth first.”
High stakes
China has also been investing heavily in quantum communications, Kinsella noted, with a focus on encrypted communications between Earth and space.
“I would anticipate they continue to invest in that and that will become increasingly important as time goes on,” he said, pointing to a global race to realize a capability that could reshape military communications as space becomes an increasingly strategic domain.
In a conflict, he said, the loss of GPS and communications would create major vulnerabilities for the United States and its allies, but “with quantum sensors in space, you can effectively recreate GPS with turbocharged capabilities, working in tandem with things here on the Earth.”
Getting operational
Having proven the underlying physics, Kinsella said remaining hurdles include engineering systems that can survive launch, operate in radiation and continue performing in orbit without repair.
“This isn’t really necessarily physics challenges at this point, these are kind of systems engineering challenges,” he continued.
America’s Quantum Space Initiative aims to bring together the disparate parts of the emerging ecosystem to help solve this.
Voyager and Armada are supporting efforts to get assets into space, while the University of Colorado Boulder brings academic expertise. Monarch, which is already working with Infleqtion on the gravity gradiometer, aims to contribute the photonics and laser capabilities that are key for quantum links.
The initiative is about “getting all the different pieces of the puzzle to take quantum from building it here on land, getting it up into space and then having it start to do useful things,” Kinsella said, with more partners likely to be announced over the next year.