Trump signs order creating US Space Academy at NASA's Johnson Space Center
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday establishing the US Space Academy, the first institution of its kind. The announcement came during an event honoring the Artemis II crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas. Graduates are expected to serve the US Space Force, NASA, and the civilian spaceflight industry.
Key Facts
- President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday establishing the US Space Academy, the first institution of its kind.
- The announcement was made during an event honoring the four-person Artemis II crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas.
- Graduates of the new academy are expected to serve the US Space Force, NASA, and the civilian spaceflight industry.
- The academy will offer a four-year degree and may be modeled after the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York.
- Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver expressed concern that a military-style academy could blur the line between NASA's civilian mission and the US Space Force's military role.
The Announcement
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday establishing the US Space Academy, the first institution of its kind. The announcement was made during an event honoring the four-person Artemis II crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas. Trump described the training facility as "a big deal" and said it would be "top line". He likened the space academy to other prestigious US service institutions, like the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and the US Military Academy in West Point, New York. "They're all great. But … we're gonna have an academy for what the people in this room love the most," Trump said.
Curriculum and Structure
The academy idea remains in its formative stages but is likely to include curricula covering human and non-human spaceflight operations, ground control operations, space vehicle design, orbital debris mitigation, and related disciplines. The goal is to create a new generation of technical leaders who can support ongoing exploration efforts, both in commercial spaceflight and in ensuring that the US government maintains a global lead in doing hard things in space. This would be an entirely new academy, perhaps similar in design to the US Merchant Marine Academy, which is based in Kings Point, New York. Students would apply after high school for admittance and be taught by leaders in both civil space and commercial space. Students would earn a four-year degree, and no location has been chosen for the academy, but it may be sited near existing NASA facilities or workforce expertise.
Civil-Military Concerns
A former deputy administrator of NASA, Lori Garver, said the idea of creating a space academy could be helpful for the US space program and its future workforce, but she cautioned that not enough is yet known about the details. Her biggest concern is that creating an academy modeled after the military service academies would conflate what NASA does—the peaceful, civil exploration of space—with military activities undertaken by the US Space Force. "NASA's charter and legal foundation calls for a civilian agency separate from the military," Garver said. "Structuring a feeder college along the lines of a military academy strikes me as ill-conceived." Garver served under President Obama at NASA about a decade ago and has since been involved in the creation of several fellowship programs to funnel more women and minorities into aerospace engineering.
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Trump signs order creating US Space Academy at NASA's Johnson Space Center
