NASA Academy

Since its founding in 1993, the NASA Academy has brought together future leaders of the aerospace industry and exposed them to the inner workings of NASA, academia, and industry. The Academy consists of a ten-week summer program hosted by a participating NASA center. Currently there are academies at Ames Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center and Glenn Research Center. Previous Academies have been held at Dryden Flight Research Center.

"NASA Academy is a unique summer experience of higher learning whose goal is to help guide the future leaders of the American Space Program by giving them a glimpse of how the whole system works."

Gerald Soffen, NASA Academy Founder (1926 – 2000)

The NASA Academy at was founded in 1993 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center by Gerald "Gerry" Soffen. The concept was largely based on the concept of the International Space University. Soffen envisioned the NASA Academy as a leadership program with an inter-disciplinary approach similar to ISU, but without the emphasis on the international and intercultural aspects. Specifically, Soffen created the program to "give possible 'leaders' a view into how NASA, the university community, and the private sector function; [to] set their priorities; and [to] contribute to the success of the aerospace program."

The NASA Academy program is currently designed in three parts:

1. An individual research component, wherein the Research Associate is paired with a Principal Investigator, takes up about 40% of the RA's time.
2. An extensive leadership training and introduction to NASA, including lectures and site visits to a variety of NASA centers, companies, and university labs, takes up about 40% of the RA's time.
3. A team project, requiring collaborative effort of all RAs, takes up about 20% of the RA's time.

NASA Academy RAs are typically expected to work long hours: as a general rule, the day is scheduled from 07:30 to 21:00, after which RAs work on the Team Project or on individual research assignments. However, NASA Academy RAs are also typically given excellent opportunities, including field trips to other centers and excellent access to the leaders and decision-makers of the aerospace industry.

A NASA Academy class typically varies from 10-20 RAs per center per year. RAs are selected in a joint effort between the NASA Center, the NASA Academy Alumni Association, the PIs, and the State Space Grant Consortia. In recent years, the NASA Academy af GSFC has begun admitting a French student every year, in cooperation with the Centre National d'Études Spatiales.

Notable alumni

• Eric Anderson, CEO of space tourism company Space Adventures, President of the Intentional Software Corporation, and Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
• Bethany Ehlmann, Rhodes Scholarship Scholar
• Enectali Figueroa, pioneer of positron-sensitive detectors
• David J. Goldstein, CFO of microsatellite and communications company AeroAstro, Inc.
• Chris Lewicki, Mars Exploration Rover Flight Director, and the first person to drive the MER rovers on Mars
• Jake Lopata, Founder and President of rocket launch startup company SpaceLaunch, Inc.
• Holly Ridings, an ISS Flight Director at NASA's Mission Control Center

External links

• NASA Academy Home Page
• The NASA Academy Alumni Association (NAAA)
• AcademyApp.com, which hosts the Academy Application process.