WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Aug. 28 creating a commission to study establishing a federal space academy analogous to those for the military services.
Speaking at an event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew of the Artemis 2 mission, Trump announced he would seek to create an academy to train the space industry workforce.
“It’s clear that we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers and civil operators,” he said. “That’s why, in a few moments, I will sign an executive order to begin the process of creating a new national academy. It’s called the U.S. Space Academy.”
“It’ll serve both the United States Space Force as well as NASA and the civilian spaceflight industry, and it’ll attract, train and graduate the very best of our nation,” he said. Later in the event, he sat at a desk on stage and signed the executive order.
The order, released by the White House after the event, does not explicitly establish a space academy. It instead creates what it calls the “Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy,” which will be chaired by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. The director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael Kratsios, and the director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, will serve as vice chairs of the commission.
