Executive Order 14423 establishes a Presidential Commission to design the United States Space Academy; it does not establish an operating academy with students, degrees, a campus, or a settled chain of command. The Commission is real now. The Academy remains a proposed NASA-led institution whose governance and implementation must pass several decisions and legal gates.
The distinction matters because the order uses different verbs for different states. It “establishes” the Commission, directs that body to “propose” key Academy details within 120 days, and tells NASA to implement approved recommendations only after presidential approval, any necessary legislative action, applicable law, and available fiscal resources.
The question this map answers
What organizational structure exists under Executive Order 14423 today, what must the Commission decide, where does its report travel, and which gates remain before a United States Space Academy could operate?
MyMap reviewed the controlling Federal Register text, the White House publication and fact sheet, and NASA's announcement at 4:06 AM Pacific Time on September 3. The order was signed August 28, filed for public inspection September 2, and published as Executive Order 14423 in the September 3 Federal Register.
In this map, an assigned role is an office the order places on the Commission. An advice edge carries analysis or recommendations but does not transfer decision authority. A design question is one of the nine subjects the report must address. A gate is a condition the order says must occur, or be available, before later implementation. An unknown relationship is a governance, admissions, service, location, or funding choice that the order asks the Commission to design rather than settles itself.
The Commission has a specified leadership core
The NASA Administrator chairs the Commission. The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy are vice chairs. The NASA Deputy Administrator serves as executive director.
The remaining named members, or their designees, are the Secretary of War; the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff; the Office of Management and Budget Director; the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; and the Secretary of the Air Force. The chair may invite other full-time or permanent part-time federal employees after consulting the vice chairs.
These are Commission roles, not an Academy reporting chart. The order does not name an Academy superintendent, board, dean, faculty, admissions office, military command, or accreditor. It also preserves the existing legal authority of departments, agencies, and their heads, and preserves OMB's functions over budgetary, administrative, and legislative proposals.
The correct current-state org chart therefore ends at the Commission. Drawing an Academy box underneath NASA with a solid command line would convert an option the Commission must evaluate into a decision the President has not yet approved.
Working groups can develop evidence, but the Commission owns adoption
The chair may create working groups of agency representatives. Those groups may consult experts from academia and industry and other stakeholders. Their recommendations report directly to the Commission, and the Commission must deliberate before adopting them.
That sequence creates an evidence boundary: stakeholder input can inform a working-group recommendation; a working group can advise the Commission; the Commission can include an adopted recommendation in its report. None of those steps is presidential approval, legislation, accreditation, an appropriation, or an Academy policy.
A public tracker should preserve the provenance of each idea. Label who supplied it, whether a working group recommended it, whether the Commission adopted it, whether the report included it, and whether the President later approved it. Without those states, an industry suggestion can accidentally appear to be federal policy.
The 120-day report must cover nine open design areas
The order requires the Commission to submit a report to the President through both vice chairs within 120 days of August 28. It specifies nine recommendation areas:
| Design area | What remains to be proposed |
|---|---|
| Governance | Structure, authorities, accreditation, agency relationships, and the option of locating the Academy within NASA |
| Curriculum | Degree programs, technical education, experiential training, leadership development |
| Graduate service | Armed Forces or civilian federal obligations and the conditions for fulfilling them |
| Applicant prerequisites | Citizenship, security clearances, government employment, or military status |
| Permanent location | A selection process appropriate to the chosen governance model |
| Administrative action | Existing-authority pilots, partnerships, and preparatory initiatives |
| Legislative action | Statutory changes needed to implement recommendations |
| Program coordination | Connections to existing federal education programs, partnerships, and agreements |
| Implementation | Timeline and sequence for administrative and legislative action using available authorities and programs |
The table is a requirements map for the report, not a description of the eventual Academy. For example, the order says the Commission must evaluate establishing the Academy within NASA. It does not say that placement is final. It asks for recommendations on service in the Armed Forces and civilian federal service; it does not assign every future graduate to one service, set a term, or define enforcement.
Likewise, “permanent physical location” confirms that the report must recommend a selection process. It does not select a city, state, campus, or opening date. Applicant prerequisites are subjects for recommendation, not current eligibility rules.
The report travels through two vice chairs, then reaches decision gates
The Commission submits its report to the President through the science-and-technology and economic-policy vice chairs. That routing gives both White House offices a defined transmission role. The order does not say either vice chair can approve the Academy independently.
After the report, presidential approval is the first explicit implementation gate. “Any necessary legislative action” is a separate conditional gate because some recommended authorities or structures may require Congress while others may be possible under existing authority. The Commission itself must identify that boundary.
Available fiscal resources and applicable law remain constraints throughout. The general provisions say implementation is subject to appropriations. The order does not appropriate money, set tuition, authorize construction, create degree-granting power, or announce an operating budget.
Only after approval and any necessary legislation does the order assign implementation to the NASA Administrator, coordinating with the heads of relevant agencies. That is a future implementation lead, not proof that NASA currently operates the Academy.
How to map the process without upgrading proposals into facts
Start with one record for every clause in sections 2 through 4. Give each record an actor, action verb, object, recipient, timing condition, legal condition, and status. Use solid lines only for roles and routes the order establishes. Use dashed lines for report subjects and future implementation paths. Leave unresolved nodes visibly open.
For the nine design areas, keep an option ledger with four states: mentioned in the order, recommended by a working group, adopted by the Commission, and approved by the President. Add separate flags for legislation required, appropriation available, and implementation started. This prevents a single “approved” badge from collapsing decisions that belong to different institutions.
If you need to maintain a living version as appointments and recommendations appear, start from the MyMap org chart generator, but preserve status and evidence on every edge. An editable chart is a tracking tool, not an official source.
Confirmed, derived, and still unknown
The order confirms the Commission's existence and composition, NASA leadership roles, optional working groups, the two-vice-chair report route, the 120-day clock, nine required recommendation areas, presidential approval, any necessary legislative action, NASA-led implementation, preservation of existing agency authority, and constraints from applicable law and fiscal resources.
The White House fact sheet confirms that the immediate action is a Commission to begin the design process. NASA's release confirms the agency's announcement and the date of signing. Neither overrides the operative distinctions in the order.
MyMap derives the three-stage structure—Commission, design report, conditional implementation—and the option ledger. It also derives that advice, adoption, presidential approval, legislation, funding, and implementation should be tracked as distinct states.
The sources leave unknown the permanent governance model; whether the Academy will sit within NASA; the identity and authority of future Academy leaders; degrees and accreditation; curriculum; student count; admissions standards; citizenship or clearance rules; military versus civilian service terms; location; partnerships; budget; appropriations; legislation; opening date; and which recommendations the President will approve.
The practical next step is to track the 120-day report as the next controlling artifact. Until that report is published and decisions move through their own gates, describe the Academy as proposed and the Commission as established.