President Trump signed an executive order creating the U.S. Space Academy during a ceremony last Friday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The administration now has 120 days to submit a proposal for the academy under NASA’s leadership.

The institution is expected to offer technical education and degree programs designed to prepare leaders for NASA, the Space Force and aerospace companies. Trump said the academy would recruit and train the country’s strongest candidates as the United States expands its ambitions beyond Earth.

During the ceremony, Trump also awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four members of the Artemis II crew: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The astronauts completed a 10-day lunar flyby aboard the Orion spacecraft Integrity.

Their mission traveled 252,000 miles from Earth and covered nearly 700,000 miles. Trump later spoke with astronauts aboard the International Space Station from Mission Control, becoming the first sitting president to do so.

The Space Academy would provide the United States with a dedicated pipeline of people who can move among civilian exploration, national defense, and commercial aerospace. While the astronaut is the best-known position, space programs depend on an army of engineers, scientists, and other mission planners and executives who understand how these fields connect. Putting all of this training under a single institution may help streamline the process and improve the specialized work demanded by both NASA and the Space Force.

Space has become both an economic frontier as well as a contested security domain. Satellites support everything from navigation and communication to weather forecasting and military operations. A larger pool of ideally better-trained scientists and specialists would help to protect these systems while also supporting exploration missions to the moon and beyond.

Major space missions can take decades to complete and often continue through several presidencies. The academy could ensure the country has enough trained people to keep these projects moving, even when political leadership and national priorities change with the administration.

For students and professionals hoping to enter the workforce, the Space Academy could offer a clearer path into an industry that often seems reserved for astronauts and elite scientists at the top of their fields. Its programs are likely to create opportunities in engineering, computer systems, communications, robotics and project management.

Space research has helped improve everything from GPS and weather forecasts to medical equipment. Training more people to develop those systems could provide better services and improve technology, particularly in faster internet and air travel.

Cyberattacks and weapons developed by rival nations are increasingly putting American satellites at greater risk. These systems support various facets of everyday life, from debit card payments and GPS coordinates to phone calls. As competition in space intensifies and the cyberattacks along with it, a specialized workforce trained in the academy could be a great hedge moving forward.