Trump signs executive order to create a U.S. Space Academy
"Space is the hot thing," President Trump said at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Updated on: August 28, 2026 / 6:56 PM EDT / CBS News
President Trump signed an executive order Friday to begin a process of creating a U.S. Space Academy for the use of the U.S. Space Force, NASA and the civilian spaceflight industry.
Mr. Trump announced the new academy at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston during an event awarding the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four-person crew of Artemis II , which flew around the moon earlier this year, a flight that helps set the stage for a lunar landing in 2028.
"It's called the U.S. Space Academy," Mr. Trump told a throng of astronauts, engineers and NASA managers. "That's a big deal. 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 academies. Great, they're all great. But we're going to have now the Space Force. We're going to have an academy for what the people in this room love the most."
The president said the academy will "attract, train and graduate the very best of our nation." He said he agreed to build the academy, but "it's got to be top line. It's got to be the equivalent of the others, which are great."
The Trump administration hasn't yet chosen a location for the event, but Mr. Trump said Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is lobbying for Texas.