President Donald Trump lauded NASA astronaut and U.S. Space Force Colonel Anil Menon alongside his crewmates as “great Americans, great patriots, and brave people” during a live call from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to the International Space Station. Trump spoke with Menon alongside fellow NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway. During the conversation, Menon expressed pride in serving in the Space Force, highlighted his recent spacewalk using the robotic arm, and shared his excitement for upcoming missions paving the way toward a lunar base and Mars. Menon’s wife, Anna, also joined Trump at the space center to briefly address the crew. Menon was born and raised in Minneapolis to Indian and Ukrainian immigrant parents.
Establishment of the US Space Academy:
The space-to-ground call followed Trump’s official announcement and signing of an executive order to create a Presidential Commission for a new U.S. Space Academy. Designed to train a new generation of service members, engineers, and civil operators, the institution aims to support the rapid growth of the U.S. Space Force and the commercial space sector as national ambitions expand toward deep-space exploration.
The newly established commission will be chaired by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, with NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson serving as its executive director. While Trump envisions the academy to rank alongside America’s existing five federal service academies, launching a permanent institution of this scale will require finalizing funding, admissions criteria, degree curricula, service obligations, and appropriate congressional actions.
