Trump Announces New ‘U.S. Space Academy’ During Artemis II Medal Ceremony

President Donald Trump announced the formation of a new U.S. Space Academy to rival West Point and Annapolis in attracting the best students.

Trump made the announcement during a medal ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, for the Artemis II astronauts who traveled around the moon last spring.

Trump talked about U.S. “manifest destiny” in exploring space, saying, “For this reason in my first term, I created the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces, Space Force. And today I have another historic announcement to make. This is something that’s so exciting for me, given the rapid growth of the Space Force and the commercial space industry and the expansion of our ambition to the moon and far beyond the moon.”

Trump continued:

But it’s clear that we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, and civil operators, and everything else to do what we have to do, and what we’re right now doing the best and will continue, and I think by leaps and bounds. And that’s why in a few moments I will sign an executive order to begin the process of creating a new national academy. It’s called the U.S. Space Academy. 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 Academy is great. They’re all great.

Trump said he’s going to be choosing a location for the new academy “very shortly.”

“But it will serve both the United States Space Force, as well as NASA, and the civilian spaceflight industry,” Trump said. “And it will attract, train, and graduate the very best of our nation, and our nation really has to offer. And this is going to be — I said, ‘I’ll do it, but it’s got to be top line. It’s got to be the equivalent of the others, which are great.’ You know, they’re among the hardest schools to get into. You know, you talk about the Ivy League schools; it’s tougher to get into West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, Coast Guard, too. You know, we can’t forget that. But so, so tough. All of them among the hardest schools to get into.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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