Bringing Aerospace Opportunities Across the State

Since its inception in the early 1990s, NASA’s Minnesota Space Grant Consortium has become a cornerstone of STEM education across the state, connecting students, faculty, and institutions with opportunities in aerospace and space science. Housed in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, but reaching far beyond U of M campus borders, the consortium is part of NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship program—created to bring NASA’s mission nationwide.

“The idea was to make NASA accessible to [higher education] students in every state, not just the ones with NASA research centers,” explains Demoz Gebre-Egziabher, AEM Professor and Director of the MnSGC. The MnSGC is one of 52 Space Grants tasked with aligning NASA’s educational goals with the unique strengths and needs of each state.

While the consortium is officially rooted in higher education, its reach spans a remarkable range—from rocket-building undergraduates and balloon-launching middle schoolers to apparel design students experimenting with wearable tech of interest to NASA. “We’re here to develop the future workforce. It’s about building capacity, not just in aerospace engineering, but in adjacent fields that touch aerospace,” says James Flaten, AEM Contract Professor and Associate Director of the MnSGC.

Although MnSGC is physically run from the University of Minnesota’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, its mission is statewide. Thirteen other institutions are formal affiliates, including tribal colleges, community colleges, private colleges, state universities, and even the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

“With the exception of one congressional district, we have at least one formal affiliate in every district,” says Flaten, “and informal activities with colleges and universities in all congressional districts.”

The consortium supports hands-on learning projects across all institutions—from CubeSat research and environmental studies with drones to high-power rocketry and stratospheric balloon launches. These activities are more than academic exercises; they help propel undergraduates into professional aerospace careers and also graduate-level research.

While the MnSGC does support some faculty-led research, its primary focus is education. This includes a wide range of projects, from building CubeSats to be launched into space to collecting cosmic radiation data to using rideable hovercraft to demonstrate Newton’s Laws of Motion to summer camp students.

Gebre-Egziabher describes the program as “half research, half workforce development.”

For students, that means opportunities to not only contribute to cutting-edge science but to actually learn how to build spacecraft or simulate microgravity environments—sometimes starting as early as high school.

The stories speak for themselves. From a freshman seminar student in the College of Liberal Arts who eventually earned a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, to apparel design majors now developing wearable technologies for space applications, the MnSGC has helped chart many unexpected career trajectories.

Through required “open” programming by affiliates, MnSGC ensures that students from all majors—not just STEM majors—have the chance to participate in NASA-related activities. A standout example? Students in the College of Housing and Apparel Design collaborating on space-ready apparel with embedded sensors, in partnership with Johnson Space Center. MnSGC also plays a critical role in helping students secure summer internships, both in Minnesota and at NASA research centers such as Langley and Ames. Once students are accepted for internships, the MnSGC provides them with vital financial and logistical support.

The MnSGC also serves critical industry needs in Minnesota. “The state has a strong aerospace sector,” Flaten notes, “but it’s often easier to hire someone local than to convince someone from out-of-state to move to Minneapolis in January. We’re helping to grow homegrown talent.”

With input from an industry advisory board, the MnSGC is exploring emerging state needs—like drone assembly, programming, and operations—reflecting Minnesota’s growing interest in unmanned aerial systems across public and private sectors.

Ultimately, the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium isn’t just about funding projects or facilitating internships—it’s about sparking curiosity and creating pathways. Whether it’s helping a tribal college start a rocketry program, guiding a freshman into a lifelong career in aerospace, or bringing middle school students face-to-face with near-space experiments, the impact is deeply human.

“It’s about opportunity,” Gebre-Egziabher says. “We’re here to help people—wherever they’re from, whatever their background—find their way into aerospace.”

To learn more about the MnSGC, visit https://www.mnspacegrant.org/.