The race to see what state will be the home site of the newly announced U.S. Space Academy is officially on. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) announced on Tuesday that he is spearheading the effort in the House to make Florida the base for the school.

Donalds introduced the “Securing the Advancement of Rising Spacefarers (STARS) Act,” in a press release, aimed at “establishing a federal commission tasked with planning a dedicated, NASA-led academy to train the nation’s military, civilian, and commercial space workforce.”

On August 28, President Donald Trump issued an executive order establishing the Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy. On September 10, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) inviting states to submit proposals to be the site of the space academy. 

According to the RFI, the proposals should:

• “Identify potential locations for the permanent establishment of the USSA campus, including a groundbreaking no later than 2027.
• “Identify interim solutions that may allow the USSA to begin instruction in 2028 and facilitate a smooth transition to a permanent campus by 2031.
• “Explore the estimated costs of establishing the USSA and potential state, local, and other non-Federal partnerships that could support its establishment.”

“Florida is the birthplace of American space exploration and has led the world in spaceflight for decades. The Sunshine State has built an unmatched, fully integrated space ecosystem that bridges operational launch infrastructure, military space command assets, and tier-one research universities,” Byron declared in his statement.

“Establishing the Space Academy on Florida’s Space Coast forges an immediate talent pipeline and creates an unmatched competitive advantage, offering cadets daily exposure to NASA personnel, Space Force leaders, and private industry innovators. To ensure American space superiority in an increasingly competitive domain, our future leaders must be educated at the very nexus of global space operations.”

But Florida isn’t the only state interested. Alabama, Texas, Ohio, and Louisiana have expressed interest as well. 

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) said during a Monday appearance on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that he believes Louisiana would make sense as the location for the school. “My hope is that they look at Louisiana, and they see it as a corridor for the space industry and so much growth possibility in Louisiana,” Landry explained. “Look, we’ve been landing a lot of great projects here in Louisiana. We’ve really improved our business climate.”

Last month, SpaceX, the American aerospace manufacturer founded by Elon Musk, announced an initiative to construct its largest Starbase launch facility in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. 

“That Starbase is going to be five to maybe eight times bigger than anything we’ve seen in the United States,” Landry said. “And so, you think about that, you think about what that is going to bring to Louisiana, not only the amount of launches, but the expertise and the ingenuity and the engineering of SpaceX and its relationship with NASA. Again, I think it just makes a tremendous amount of sense to put it right here in Louisiana.”

Landry continued that he is unsure Americans realize the stakes in the space innovation industry in the present day and age. “I don’t think people are realizing how important this space race is. This is the second space race that the United States has engaged upon. We remember the first one that was in the ’60s. But what we don’t want is China to beat us out on technology and to be out in space and to be able to do things that the United States can’t do. So, this is extremely important from a national security standpoint and for keeping American dominance on the globe.”

The deadline for project proposals is October 26.