The UCLA SPACE Institute is a multi-departmental institute within the School of Physical Sciences, with faculty and researchers from Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS), Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences (EPSS), Physics & Astronomy, Henry Samueli School of Engineering, David Geffen School of Medicine, and Anderson School of Management. Voted again in 2026 as the #1 public university in the U.S., UCLA is an innovation hub and student talent pool in the midst of LA’s booming aerospace industry. With historical precedent going back to the dawn of the Space Age, our intellectually diverse faculty, researchers, and staff lead NASA missions and investigations across the solar system, and monitor the health of astronauts, while training the next generation of space technologists and researchers. Our mission is to contribute to the technologies for space exploration and crewed spaceflight while benefiting humanity and nature on our unique Pale Blue Dot.
UCLA has long been a leader in space science, employing a variety of observational techniques, developing instruments and satellite platforms, and integrating basic theory, numerical modeling, machine learning, and laboratory plasma experiments. Our investigations encompass solar physics, solar-wind interactions with terrestrial and planetary magnetospheres, and ionospheric physics, collectively known as “space weather.” We also have been responsible for discovering “waterworlds” in our solar system and beyond, and are developing new instrumentation for remote sensing, medical studies of astronauts in space and for deep space discoveries. We are more committed than ever to this mission given the ever-increasing human and technological presence in space.
The commercial space sector economy is projected to reach $1-$2.7 trillion by the 2040s. This growth will create demand for thousands of qualified space professionals, with unique transdisciplinary expertise that spans research to real-life applications. UCLA can deliver on that front by providing hands-on training with real-world applications, preparing students and career professionals alike to succeed in the space industry of the future.
