President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 28, 2026, creating the U.S. Space Academy. The proposed federal service academy would train future Space Force officers, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) staff, and civilian space engineers. Trump signed the order at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, pointing to the fast growth of the Space Force and the commercial space industry as the reason a dedicated academy is needed now.
What the Executive Order Creates
The order directs the federal government to plan the country’s first dedicated space service academy, built on the model of West Point, the Air Force Academy, and the Naval Academy. It combines technical education with leadership training, discipline, and a commitment to public service, according to NASA’s own announcement. The stated goal is a single pipeline that produces Space Force officers, NASA engineers, and civilian space-industry operators from the same institution, instead of splitting that training across the Air Force Academy, university ROTC programs, and separate agency hiring.
The order itself does not build a campus or enroll a single cadet. It stands up a planning commission and sets a clock on that commission’s work. Until the commission reports, the academy remains a directive on paper rather than a functioning school.
Who Sits on the Planning Commission
A commission created by the order will plan the academy’s governance, curriculum, and location before anything opens. NASA’s release names NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman as chair, with NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson serving as executive director. Two White House officials serve as vice chairs: Michael Kratsios, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Kevin Hassett, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. Additional representatives from the White House and other federal agencies round out the commission.
Coverage from Stars and Stripes also places Department of Defense leadership in the mix, naming Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air Force Secretary Troy Meink as participants. That fits how the Space Force is organized: it sits inside the Department of the Air Force, so any academy meant to commission Space Force officers needs Pentagon and Air Force buy-in alongside NASA’s.
What the Commission Must Decide
The commission has 120 days from the August 28, 2026 signing, or roughly until late December 2026, to send the president a set of recommendations. NASA’s own announcement names four required items the report must cover, plus unspecified items beyond those:
- A governance framework for running the academy
- Service obligations for graduates
- A proposed physical location
- Any legislative changes needed to stand the academy up
Stars and Stripes reporting on the order adds a fifth expected item: an academic curriculum, which its coverage says the same 120-day report will address.
The legislative item matters more than it sounds. A federal service academy is not just an executive branch project. Congress passed a specific law creating the Air Force Academy in April 1954. A new academy modeled on it would likely need its own act of Congress, plus a funding line, before a single building goes up. That timeline gives a sense of how long the full process can run. The Air Force settled on Colorado Springs within months of the 1954 law. Construction did not finish until 1958. Roughly four years passed between the law and cadets moving into a finished campus.
How a Proposed Space Academy Compares to Existing Academies
The three existing federal service academies give a rough template for what a Space Academy could look like, though none of them train specifically for space careers today.
| US Space Academy (proposed) | US Air Force Academy | US Naval Academy | US Military Academy (West Point) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Planning stage only | Operating since the 1950s | Operating since 1845 | Operating since 1802 |
| Trains officers for | Space Force, NASA, civilian space roles | Air Force, historically also Space Force | Navy, Marine Corps | Army |
| Established by | Not yet; commission report due within 120 days | Air Force Academy Act of 1954 | Act of Congress, 1845 | Act of Congress, 1802 |
| Physical campus | Not yet chosen | Colorado Springs, Colorado | Annapolis, Maryland | West Point, New York |
Space Force officers currently commission through the Air Force Academy, Air Force ROTC, or Officer Training School, the same pipeline described on OrbitalIntel’s guide to joining the Space Force. A dedicated Space Academy would be a new, parallel pipeline rather than a replacement for that existing one, at least at first.
Where the Academy Will Be Located
No site has been chosen for the U.S. Space Academy. The executive order leaves that decision to the planning commission, whose report is due within 120 days of the signing. Neither NASA nor the White House has published a shortlist of candidate cities or states. Any article or social post naming a specific future location ahead of that report is describing a guess. Readers should treat it as speculation until the commission’s recommendation becomes public.
Does This Change How to Join the Space Force Today
No, not yet. A reader weighing when to apply to the Air Force Academy, sign up for Air Force ROTC, or pursue Officer Training School has no reason to wait on this order. Those three routes, covered in OrbitalIntel’s guide to joining the Space Force, remain the only ways to commission as a Space Force officer today. The commission’s report is still months away. A physical campus, based on how long the Air Force Academy took to open after its own founding law passed, is likely years further out than that.
A commission report is also not the same thing as a functioning school. The order gives the commission 120 days to recommend a curriculum, a location, and graduate service terms, but a recommendation is not funding, and it is not a building. Congress would still need to pass legislation creating the academy and appropriating money for a campus, the same two steps that had to happen before the Air Force Academy accepted its first cadets. Until that legislation exists, a prospective Guardian’s fastest path into the Space Force is still the pipeline that already exists today.
What Comes Next
The commission’s report, due by late December 2026, is the next real milestone. It will settle the questions this order leaves open: where the academy sits, what its curriculum looks like, whether graduates owe active-duty service, and what Congress needs to pass to fund it. Readers tracking this story should watch for that report rather than the signing itself, since the signing only started the planning clock.