"America will always be the first in space," Trump said during a speech at the White House.

"We don't want China and Russia and other countries leading us. We've always led," he added.

"My administration is reclaiming America's heritage as the world's greatest space-faring nation."

The US president called for the Pentagon to create a new America "Space Force" that would become the sixth branch of the American military but requires Congressional approval to take effect.

The idea, which Trump has floated before, has stoked controversy at the Pentagon and among lawmakers.

"We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the Space Force, separate but equal," Trump said.

Details about the role and timing of any new space force were not immediately clear.

However, the creation of a new branch of the military cannot happen from one day to the next, as Congress would have to pass a law authorizing it first.

The US armed forces currently consist of the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard.

"When it comes to defending America it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space," Trump said at the start of the third meeting of the National Space Council, an advisory body led by Vice President Mike Pence.

- 'Rich guys like rockets' -

Since his election, Trump has repeatedly vowed to send people back to the Moon for the first time since 1972, in preparation for the first human missions to Mars in the coming decades.

He has also promised fewer regulations, so as to speed up the process private industries must go through before launching a rocket or satellite.

The US commercial space sector is booming, while NASA has shifted from its role as a launcher of rockets during the Apollo era (1961-1972) and the space shuttle era (1981-2011) to mainly a client.

The US space agency has contracted SpaceX and Orbital ATK to ferry supplies to the International Space Station since 2012.

NASA has been unable to send astronauts to space since the shuttle program ended in 2011, and relies on Russian Soyuz spaceships in the meantime.

SpaceX and Boeing are expected to start regular astronaut missions to low-Earth orbit next year.

Trump wants to privatize the ISS after 2025, another controversial notion in Congress, in order to spend more money on NASA and returning astronauts to the Moon.

"This time we will establish a long-term presence," Trump said.

NASA is working on its most powerful rocket ever, called the Space Launch System, or SLS, to launch astronauts and their equipment to the Moon and one day, Mars.

The US space agency also wants to build a lunar outpost.

But private industry will have a role in that, too. NASA has already sought out mission concepts for delivering materials to the surface of the Moon.

"Rich guys seem to like rockets," Trump said. "As long as it's an American rich person, that's good, they can beat us."

Meanwhile, Trump has signed two directives -- one that transfers certain powers from the Pentagon to the Commerce Department, including the regulation of private satellites.

Another directive on space traffic management is aimed at boosting public-private monitoring of objects in orbit so as to avoid collisions and debris strikes.

A statement released by the White House said the move "seeks to reduce the growing threat of orbital debris to the common interest of all nations."

The Defense Department says there are 20,000 pieces of space debris and 800 operational US satellites circling Earth, a number that grows every year.