From the Johnson Space Center in Houston, President Trump reached across the atmosphere to speak with three Americans orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station — among them Anil Menon, a Space Force colonel and son of immigrants, whose journey from Minneapolis to the cosmos reflects something enduring about the American story. The call was both a gesture of recognition and a declaration of ambition, as Trump announced plans for a Space Academy to stand alongside the nation's most storied military institutions. In the silence between Earth and orbit, questions of courage, national p