HWBRIEF
States have until Oct. 26 to pitch land, infrastructure, and funding for a federal academy aiming to enroll 1,200 undergraduates in 2028.
NASA is asking all 50 states to compete to host a new US Space Academy, and to underwrite the campus with their own land, infrastructure, and funding. The agency's 14-page Request for Information, published the week of Sept. 3, sets an Oct. 26 deadline for state pitches, including university partnerships and rough cost estimates.
The permanent campus will need at least 300 acres, an initial class of 1,200 undergraduates, and room to scale to 4,000. The first cohort would enroll in temporary facilities in 2028, then move to a permanent campus in 2031, per the RFI and Executive Order 14423, published in the Federal Register on Sept. 3. NASA's release frames the academy's mission as preparing leaders to "explore, build, operate, secure, and defend the space domain," wording that tracks closer to U.S. Space Command than to a typical college catalog.
Texas, Florida, and Alabama have already publicly entered the field, with at least one state running two competing in-state bids, per ClearanceJobs. SpacePolicyOnline and Ars Technica report that NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman chaired the first Presidential Commission on the academy on Sept. 9.
The timeline is aggressive for a federal campus of this scale: groundbreaking next year, first class in 2028, permanent campus in 2031.