President Donald Trump signs an executive order to begin creating a U.S. Space Academy during the Congressional Space Medal of Honor ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Aug. 28, 2026. —Melissa Phillip—Houston Chronicle via Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump last week signed an executive order creating a commission to develop plans for the United States Space Academy, which is intended to “educate and develop the next generation of leaders across the space domain.”The initiative was first announced when Trump visited the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Aug. 28 to present the crew of Artemis II with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. The crew was recognized for their 10-day lunar flyby in April, which took them farther from Earth than any human had ever traveled.“Given the rapid growth of the Space Force and the commercial space industry and the expansion of our ambitions to the moon and far beyond the moon,” Trump said while giving remarks at the ceremony, “it’s clear we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, and civil operators.”The proposed academy is envisioned as serving the military, civil government, and broader space industry. However, the exact admissions requirements for Space Academy—which will help characterize who it serves and how—are yet to be determined. Future Space Force officers currently attend the U.S. Air Force Academy.Read More: U.S. Says Chinese Hackers Targeted Senate, NASA, Hospitals, and More“The Nation must prepare the next generation of astronauts, scientists, engineers, operators, entrepreneurs, civil servants, and warfighters and ensure that they are capable of advancing American interests in space,” the executive order said. “Achieving this goal requires us to recruit, train, and retain America’s best and brightest from across the Nation.”At the ceremony, Trump also acknowledged the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named for one of the forebears of modern space science, which was launched Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. With surveying capabilities over 1,000 times faster than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, Roman seeks to explore dark matter, uncharted corners of the cosmos, and questions about the expansion of the universe.What do we know so far about the Space Academy?The first step in establishing the new academy is forming a Presidential Commission to develop recommendations for it. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will chair the new commission, according to the executive order, and it will also include War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink, or their designees, among other federal representatives.The commission has 120 days from Aug. 28 to submit its report to the President. It must include a governance framework, an academic and leadership curriculum, prerequisites for students, a service obligation for graduates, and a plan of implementation, legislative and otherwise, for all of the included components to take effect.The White House also released a fact sheet, which described the proposed Space Academy as a “NASA-led federal academy dedicated to combining rigorous technical education with leadership development, discipline, and a durable commitment to public service.”The fact sheet organized the administration’s case for the academy under three headings.“Building the Next Generation of American Space Leaders” covered the convening of the commission and how the commission’s subsequent recommendations will be implemented. “Advancing American Space Superiority” established that intensifying competition in space requires the United States to encourage more students to pursue cutting-edge technical fields.Finally, “Building American Strength and Driving Achievement” explained Trump’s commitment to the space industry, from signing the legislation that formed the Space Force in 2019 to this month’s National Security Presidential Memorandum, which calls for U.S. ranges to support “more than 1,000 launches and reentries every year” by 2030.“Access to, from, and within space is a vital national and economic security interest,” the Aug. 20 memorandum stated.The fact sheet also linked the Space Force to the military’s preparation for future warfare, saying: “The Space Force is critical to preparing the Department of War for evolving warfighting conditions and expanding our capabilities.”Where will the Space Academy be located?The future location of the Space Academy has not yet been determined. Trump said that the White House would be accepting proposals. At the Congressional Space Medal of Honor ceremony, he said, “I’m going to be choosing a location very shortly.”Joking that Sen. Ted Cruz was already interested in hosting the new academy in Texas, Trump continued: “Everybody wants it because it’s the hot thing. Space is the hot thing.”Trump compared his ambitions for the academy to other prestigious military education institutions. “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 Academy. It’s great. They’re all great,” he said. “But we’re going to have now a Space Force [academy].”Those are based in New York, Maryland, Colorado, and Connecticut, respectively.“But I said this has to be comparable to [those schools],” he explained. “You know, we don’t want to do it in any other way, and it’s going to be, even architecturally, it’s got to be beautiful. It’s got to be the top. It’s going to be as good as it can get.”