Arizona makes bid for proposed United States Space Academy

Governor Katie Hobbs recently formed a committee of top space experts, hoping to bring the newly proposed United States Space Academy to Arizona.

The institution would act as a college specifically for space exploration, where students learn all aspects of space before choosing a track to specialize in. The newly formed committee brings together experts from across the space industry to build a winning proposal to convince the government that Arizona is the perfect fit.

"It's really about training the next generation of leaders for space exploration," said Laurie Leshin, an Arizona State University professor for space futures and former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The idea of a Space Academy really brings together lots of ideas that have been out there in the past into one."

The Space Academy would train graduates for NASA space missions.

"Space engineering, or maybe space leadership, and policy and business, space science. All of these things are aspects of the program," Leshin said.

Leshin says Arizona has an advantage, pointing to the state's long history of training astronauts for the Apollo and Artemis missions.

"That is going to draw new industry, new ideas, new missions from just having that here," Leshin added.

"Getting our name out there is going to be valuable to kind of raise the profile of the state as a place that does world-class work," said Dr. Erika Hamden, director of the University of Arizona Space Institute and committee member.

Hamden says the university already has a proven track record with NASA, including working on the James Webb Space Telescope.

"At the U of A, we've been building space hardware for NASA for decades, like we have an instrument that we built that's on JWST. We did Osiris Rex, the sample return," Hamden said.

If the Space Academy comes to Arizona, Hamden believes it would draw more top students to the state.

"I want there to be kind of a critical mass of activity because then the companies come, they get good jobs, they can stay and can have really good, happy, fruitful lives," Hamden said.

The deadline for the committee's bid is next month. Other states Arizona is competing against for the opportunity include Texas and Ohio.