President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, that starts the paperwork for a United States Space Academy. It does not open one. The order creates the Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy and gives that commission 120 days to tell the White House how a NASA-led federal academy could work.

The signing took place at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, at the same event where Trump awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the Artemis II crew. NASA published the newsroom release the same day. The White House posted the full text under the title "Establishing the United States Space Academy."

"Given the rapid growth of the U.S. Space Force and commercial space industry, and the expansion of our ambitions to the Moon and far beyond the Moon, it's clear we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, and civil operators," Trump said in the NASA release. "That's why I will sign an Executive Order to begin the process of creating a new a national academy called the U.S. Space Academy."

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman chairs the commission. NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson is executive director. The assistant to the president for science and technology, Michael Kratsios, and the assistant to the president for economic policy, Kevin Hassett, are vice chairs. The order also seats the Secretary of War, the White House chief of staff, the OMB director, the national security adviser, and the Secretary of the Air Force, or their designees.

"President Trump's vision for a new academy is a transformational step to educate the engineers, scientists, technicians, operators and even the astronauts who will be necessary for the inspiring future we are pursuing in space," Isaacman said in the NASA release. "In the years ahead, we will return NASA astronauts to the lunar surface, build the Moon Base, get underway on nuclear power, ignite the orbital economy and launch more missions of science and discovery."

The order's own language is narrower than a ribbon-cutting. Section 3 defines the Space Academy as "a proposed NASA-led Federal academy" pairing technical education with leadership development and public service. The 120-day report must cover governance (including whether to house the academy inside NASA), curriculum, service obligations for graduates in the Armed Forces or civilian federal service, applicant prerequisites, a site-selection process, what can be done under existing law, and what legislation Congress would need to pass. Implementation, the order says, follows presidential approval "and any necessary legislative action," and is "subject to the availability of appropriations."

That is the power map. The White House can create a commission with a signature. It cannot appropriate a campus or invent a service commitment without Congress. The commission's report is due about late December 2026. Until then, the United States Space Academy is a planning object, not a school with a class year.

Sources