Tennessee bids to host the new U.S. Space Academy near Arnold AFB

Tennessee has launched a bid to host the planned United States Space Academy, proposing a campus at the Coffee County Joint Industrial Park near Tullahoma, minutes from Arnold Air Force Base and about 60 miles (97 km) from Huntsville, Alabama.

Gov. Bill Lee announced the bid on Oct. 28 alongside U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty and U.S. Reps. Matt Van Epps and Scott DesJarlais, all Tennessee Republicans, WSMV reported. The state is pitching the site’s existing infrastructure and room to expand, and a network of nearby institutions that could support the academy, including the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee Tech University and Vanderbilt University.

“Tennessee offers readily available land, world-class aerospace testing infrastructure, an established academic partner, and a strong network of space, defense, and research institutions,” said Van Epps, a West Point graduate.

The academy does not exist yet. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 28 creating a presidential commission to design what the order calls a NASA-led federal academy, intended to educate future astronauts, engineers, scientists, operators and warfighters. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman chairs the commission, whose members include Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and it has 120 days from the order to recommend how the academy would operate, where it could be located, what service obligations graduates would carry and what Congress would need to approve.

The project breaks with the model of the existing service academies, which are run by the U.S. Department of War or, for the Coast Guard Academy, the Department of Homeland Security. Under the order, NASA would lead the new school, though the commission is also weighing how it would supply officers for the military, including the U.S. Space Force, which now draws most of its officers from the Air Force Academy, ROTC programs and officer training school.

NASA asked every governor on Sept. 10 to submit a single proposal by Oct. 26. The agency wants a permanent site of at least 300 acres near a NASA facility or university, able to house a tuition-free undergraduate program for 1,200 students that could eventually grow to 4,000. NASA has said groundbreaking would come no later than 2027, with about 300 students starting at a temporary location in 2028 and a permanent campus in place by 2031, according to The Center Square. The final site choice rests with the president.

Tennessee faces crowded competition. Alabama has put forward Huntsville, home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the future permanent headquarters of U.S. Space Command at Redstone Arsenal. Texas is backing Houston, home to Johnson Space Center, and Florida lawmakers have introduced bills to place the academy on the Space Coast. Colorado announced its own bid for Colorado Springs on Oct. 23, and officials in Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio and West Virginia have also shown interest.

Tennessee’s pitch leans on its proximity to Huntsville and on Arnold Air Force Base, home of the Arnold Engineering Development Complex, the U.S. Air Force’s largest wind tunnel and engine test site.

“From Arnold Air Force Base to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee has powered our nation’s space and defense enterprise for generations, making us the natural home for the U.S. Space Academy,” said Blackburn.

The plan has critics. U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, has called it duplicative and costly, arguing that it overlaps with the Air Force Academy in his state.