President Donald Trump Establishes First-Ever US Space Academy During NASA Event

US President Donald Trump participated in a congressional Space Medal of Honor ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday. During the event honoring the four-person Artemis II crew at the facility in Texas, Trump made the unexpected announcement that he has signed an executive order establishing the country’s first-ever Space Academy.

Trump described the new training facility as a major development and compared it to other prestigious US service institutions like the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and the US Military Academy in West Point, New York. The order also establishes a new presidential commission to advise and assist in the academy's creation, to be led by NASA administrator Jared Isaacman along with administration officials including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Graduates of the new institution will serve the US Space Force, NASA, and the civilian flight industry. During the ceremony, Trump also presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the members of the Artemis II crew: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, following their mission earlier this year that looped around the far side of the moon.