President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday establishing a new military academy, the U.S. Space Academy, intended to prepare students and service members for careers connected to space exploration, national security, and the growing commercial space sector.
Trump announced the initiative during an appearance at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. He said the academy was motivated by “the rapid growth of the Space Force and the commercial space industry and the expansion of our ambitions to the moon and far beyond the moon.”
“It’s clear that we need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, civil operators, and everything else to do what we have to do,” he added, emphasizing the need for a broad workforce capable of supporting future missions and space-related operations.
Minutes after announcing the academy, Trump awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission. The astronauts flew around the moon earlier this year as part of the agency’s effort to advance human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.
Trump also planned to make history later on Friday by becoming the first president to call astronauts aboard the International Space Station from Mission Control at Johnson Space Center.
During his remarks, the president provided few details about the academy’s structure, curriculum, or timeline. He told attendees that he would select a location “very shortly.” He did say, however, that the academy would train civilians for jobs at NASA and throughout the commercial spaceflight industry, in addition to preparing personnel to serve in the U.S. Space Force, the military branch Trump established in 2019.
During his appearance at the space center, where the Artemis II crew presented him with his own NASA flight jacket, the president conveyed confidence in the long-term prospects of U.S. space exploration and the nation’s expanding role beyond Earth.
“Far beyond the moon will someday be thought of as a close location, like, like in the old days, the subway, the first stop, the moon will be a close location,” Trump said, portraying the moon as an initial destination that could eventually seem as accessible and familiar as the first stop on a subway line.
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