NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency "wouldn’t be able to do it" without U.S. Space Force security as NASA accelerates work on President Donald Trump’s proposed United States Space Academy.
Isaacman Credits Space Force With Security
"I’d be extremely concerned if we didn’t have the United States Space Force looking out for us," Isaacman told Newsmax on Wednesday. "We wouldn’t be able to do it without the security and the oversight that the United States Space Force provides."
Created in 2019, the U.S. Space Force is responsible for organizing, training and equipping forces to conduct space operations. Its missions include space domain awareness, missile warning and tracking, satellite communications and space access and launch operations.
Trump’s Space Academy Takes Shape Quickly
Trump signed an executive order Aug. 28 creating a presidential commission to design the Space Academy, with Isaacman as chair. The proposal envisions a NASA-led federal academy combining technical education, leadership training and public service. The commission must submit recommendations within 120 days on governance, degree programs, experiential training, admissions requirements, service obligations and a permanent location.
Those commitments could include service in the Armed Forces or civilian federal agencies. The commission must also study whether the academy should sit inside NASA and what congressional action would be required.
"We are moving extremely quickly right now," Isaacman said during his Newsmax interview. "You need a United States Space Academy. You need a Starfleet Academy for all the leaders, the technicians, engineers, researchers, scientists, pilots, and astronauts of the future."
NASA Sets Ambitious Academy Launch Timeline
NASA has already held the commission’s first meeting and asked states to pitch sites. Its timeline calls for a groundbreaking by 2027, an initial class of 300 students in temporary facilities in 2028 and a permanent campus operating by 2031. State responses are due Oct. 26.
The academy is part of a broader push to expand the U.S. space workforce as NASA pursues a permanent lunar presence and the Space Force expands its national-security role. Isaacman has previously said NASA "can’t do it without" Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) for the Moon base, while the agency has also worked with Blue Origin on lunar infrastructure.
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