Trump unveils Space Academy during NASA call with ISS crew

Donald Trump announced a proposed Space Academy and spoke with the ISS crew from NASA's Houston Mission Control. The visit linked his space training pitch with honouring Artemis II astronauts and signalling a broader push beyond low-Earth orbit.Stock photo used for illustrationUS President Donald Trump on Friday announced the creation of a new Space Academy and spoke to astronauts aboard the International Space Station during a visit to NASA's Mission Control in Houston. The crew included NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon and Jessica Meir, who are part of Expedition 75.Trump called the astronauts a group of “pioneers” and thanked them during the call from the Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center. He also said he would welcome them to the White House when they return. Trump was in Houston to present the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four-member Artemis II crew, which travelled around the Moon in April and set a new record distance from Earth for a crewed space mission.“This is a great honour, to be with you is a great honour and I just want to thank Jessica, Anil, Jack - great Americans, great patriots, brave people,” Trump said. After his remarks, NASA astronaut Anna Menon, Anil Menon’s wife, and Duke Brady, Jessica Meir’s husband, briefly spoke to the ISS crew. “Hi, it’s Anna. Great to see you guys up there. We love you guys. You’re doing a great job,” she said.Menon, a colonel in the US Space Force, told Trump he was proud to serve in space and spoke about the spacewalk he completed earlier this week. Trump then announced the new Space Academy, describing it as a “top line” school with strict admission standards and a “beautiful” campus to train the next generation of civilian and military aerospace experts. “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. It’s great. They’re all great, but we’re going to now have a Space Force (academy),” he said. Menon said he was “so proud and excited” that the United States was preparing for missions beyond low-Earth orbit. “We are going to pave the way to our next journey to the Moon, Moon Base and Mars,” he said. “And thank you for propelling us in that direction.” In a lighter moment, Trump told Hathaway, “I want to get a moustache like that.” Hathaway replied, “Absolutely, sir. I appreciate it. Yeah, the moustache is a lot of fun.”The visit brought together Trump’s announcement on the proposed Space Academy and his interaction with the ISS crew, including Anil Menon, while also marking his trip to honour the Artemis II astronauts for their record-setting mission around the Moon. With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 29, 2026 08:42 IST