Trump Orders New US Space Academy
Trump Orders New US Space Academy
The News
President Trump signed an executive order Friday creating a U.S. Space Academy, a new military academy he said would rival West Point and Annapolis.
He made the announcement at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he was honoring the Artemis II crew.
"Space is the hot thing," Trump said at the center, according to CBS News.
What It Does
Per Wire's summary of the announcement, the academy is to train Space Force members, engineers, and civilian workers bound for NASA and commercial space companies.
Trump cited the Space Force's rapid growth and expanded lunar and deep-space ambitions as the reason for the school.
Bloomberg described the move as a boost for both NASA and the military.
Timeline
Trump arrives at Johnson Space Center nearly half an hour late, according to The Independent, and announces the academy before the medal presentation.
He signs the order creating the U.S. Space Academy and awards the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the Artemis II crew, including a Canadian astronaut, a day after insulting Canada, The Independent reported.
The Space Force is established. It has operated since without a dedicated service academy of its own.
Reactions
Mediaite reported Trump pitched the academy as a competitor to West Point and Annapolis for the best students in the country.
The Independent framed the announcement more skeptically, calling it "yet another construction project" from a president who showed up late to an astronaut ceremony.
What's Next
Trump said a location would be chosen "very shortly" but gave no site, no cost, and no funding mechanism.
He also said NASA has begun work on what he called the first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft, aimed at a launch toward Mars in 2028.
Trump planned to become the first president to call astronauts aboard the International Space Station from Mission Control during the same visit.
More
The open questions are the ones the order did not answer: where the academy goes, who pays for it, and how a civilian training track would differ from the NASA and industry programs that already exist.
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