President Donald Trump on Friday announced the creation of a "Space Academy" to train future civilian and military recruits for an arena where the United States faces rivalry with China.

Speaking at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Trump said the institution would be modeled on the famed US military academy at West Point.

"It's called the U.S. Space Academy. That's a big deal," Trump said as he signed an executive order creating the new school.

"It'll serve both the United States Space Force as well as NASA and the civilian spaceflight industry, and it'll attract, train, and graduate the very best of our nation."

Trump has credited the US Space Force, the sixth branch of the US armed forces, with an important role in the recent American military operations in Venezuela and Iran.

He did not say where the new academy would be built.

The US president also presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew of NASA's Artemis 2 mission, which flew past the moon in April.

Outer space has become an increasingly strategic domain for global powers in the military and technology fields.

The United States is competing with China in the race to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, more than 50 years after humans first walked the lunar surface.

Trump last week pledged a "golden age" of space in a push to launch more rockets, including to Mars and the Moon.