President Trump signed an executive order on Friday to launch a commission tasked with establishing the first national space academy, part of a broader push to build a skilled workforce for future space exploration. The president announced the initiative during a visit to Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“It’s clear that we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, and civil operators, and everything else to do what we have to do,” Trump said. “I will sign an executive order to begin the process of creating a new national academy. It’s called the US Space Academy. That’s a big deal.”
The proposed US Space Academy would fall under NASA’s jurisdiction. According to US space officials, it is not intended to function as a traditional service academy that trains officers for the armed forces, unlike the Air Force Academy.
Trump signed the order during a ceremony in which he awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four astronauts who flew on Artemis II earlier this year.
Modernizing NASA for a new era
The initiative is being led by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who included plans for an academy to develop the agency’s future workforce as part of his Project Athena plan to overhaul US civil space efforts.
The goal is to build a top-tier institution offering free tuition. In exchange, graduates would fulfill a service commitment of several years. They could choose to join the US Space Force, but most positions would be allocated to NASA and civilian roles, according to people familiar with the project.
Isaacman has worked to modernize NASA as the US commercial space industry takes on a larger role in launch, crewed spaceflight, space stations, and lunar activities that were once handled solely by the agency. His approach leans on private industry where it excels while directing NASA resources toward cutting-edge initiatives, such as developing a base on the lunar surface.
What the academy could teach
The concept remains in its early stages but is expected to include coursework covering human and non-human spaceflight operations, ground control, space vehicle design, orbital debris mitigation, and related disciplines. The aim is to produce a new generation of technical leaders who can support exploration efforts in both commercial spaceflight and government programs.
Officials describe an entirely new academy, potentially modeled on the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York. Students would apply after high school, learn from leaders across the civil and commercial sectors, and earn a four-year degree.
No location has been selected, though it may be placed near existing NASA facilities or centers of workforce expertise. “I’m going to be choosing a location very shortly,” Trump said Friday.
Lori Garver, a former deputy administrator of NASA, said the idea could benefit the US space program and its future workforce, while cautioning about aspects of the plan.
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Image: arstechnica.com
