"That's a big deal": Trump signs order to create America's first Space Academy

The U.S. is moving toward its first Space Academy after President Donald J. Trump signed a new executive order. This will be the country’s first-ever national institution that will train the next generation of astronauts and space operators. Trump signed the order on Friday, August 28, 2026, during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. On the same day, President Trump also awarded the Artemis II crew the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, which is the country’s highest honour for space exploration.

The ceremony brought the four Artemis II crew members together as Trump presented each of them with the medal. The recipients were NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Trump also thanked the teams behind the scenes who helped make the mission a success. In his speech, he added, “Today we're proudly awarding the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the remarkable crew of Artemis II. These astronauts did not do it alone. I want to salute all of the engineers, scientists, launch and landing specialists, and everyone at NASA who helped make this mission a great success.” 

Key highlights of the U.S. Space Academy

Following this order, the Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy will spend the next several months discussing the next steps. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will chair that commission, with NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson serving as executive director, and White House officials Michael Kratsios and Kevin Hassett acting as vice chairs alongside other interagency representatives. 

Trump compared the idea to the country's existing service academies, telling the crowd, "That's a big deal. So you think of West Point, and you think of Annapolis, and you think of the Air Force Academy, and you think of the Coast Guard academies. Great, they're all great. But we're going to have the Space Force. We're going to have an academy for what the people in this room love the most." 

Over the next 120 days, the commission will figure out what the academy could look like and report its recommendations to the President. That includes how it would be governed and where it would be located, how long graduates would serve, and what laws would be needed to make it happen. Trump shared that space work is getting too big and too specialized to leave workforce training to chance.

NASA is also working toward building a Moon base by the 2030s, while the next Artemis missions will help make that goal a reality and return humans to the Moon. With these plans coming ahead, the country will need more workforce. Trump laid out the case himself, saying, "Given the rapid growth of the U.S. Space Force and commercial space industry, and the expansion of our ambitions to the Moon and far beyond the Moon, it's clear we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, and civil operators." 

Adding to this, Isaacman shared that in the coming years, NASA will send astronauts to the Moon and get started with nuclear power and even “launch more missions of science and discovery”. He added, "President Trump's vision for a new academy is a transformational step to educate the engineers, scientists, technicians, operators and even the astronauts who will be necessary for the inspiring future we are pursuing in space.” As of now, no location has been selected for the academy. Trump said, "I'm going to be choosing a location very shortly.”

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