Trump Announces Formation of US Space Academy, What For?

United States (US) President Donald Trump announced the formation of a “Space Academy” on Friday (28/8). The academy aims to train prospective civilian and military recruits for a sector in which the US faces intense competition with China.

The formation of the new academy, as reported by AFP on Saturday (29/8/2026), was based on an executive order signed by Trump during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday (28/8) local time.

Trump said during the ceremony that the Space Academy would be modelled on the renowned US military academy at West Point.

“Its name is the US Space Academy. This is a very important thing,” Trump said as he signed the executive order to establish the new school.

“This academy will serve both the US Space Force and NASA, as well as the civilian spaceflight industry, and will attract, train, and graduate the best sons and daughters of our nation,” he said.

Trump said the US Space Force, the sixth branch of the US Armed Forces, played an important role in recent American military operations in Venezuela and Iran.

He did not provide further details on where the new academy would be built.

During the occasion, Trump also awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission, who flew past the Moon last April.

Space has become an increasingly strategic domain for global powers in the military and technology fields.

The US is competing fiercely with China in the race to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, more than 50 years after humans first walked on the lunar surface.

Last week, Trump promised a “golden era” of space in an effort to launch more rockets, including to Mars and the Moon.