Overview
- Sen. Bernie Moreno on Monday launched a statewide campaign, joined by other Ohio federal and state leaders, proposing a site that links Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base with Wright State University as the home of the NASA‑led United States Space Academy.
- The Space Academy was created by a presidential executive order and NASA set an ambitious schedule calling for groundbreaking by 2027 and a permanent facility in operation by 2031, which compresses the federal site‑selection timeline.
- Ohio supporters say the Dayton proposal draws on local assets such as Wright‑Patterson’s aerospace medicine and research facilities and the region’s aviation history with the Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn.
- Multiple states, including Nevada, Texas and Florida, are also publicly competing to host the academy, and Ohio’s effort is an advocacy campaign rather than a federal award at this stage.
- If selected the academy would bring federal investment, jobs and training programs for military, civil and commercial space careers, but the decision rests with NASA and follow‑up federal review and site competition processes.