As space travel expands and becomes less exclusive, more people will need to be educated and trained in space-specific disciplines — within medicine, business, psychology, science, engineering and even hospitality for cities with launch sites around the world.
“It won’t be long before careers are available for anyone like me who always wanted to be involved in space, but couldn’t get into an astronaut program,” says Greg Autry, Ph.D., associate provost for space commercialization and strategy. “This is where the preparation will happen, at UCF, to enter an industry with unlimited potential.”
UCF was founded in 1963 to provide talent for the space industry, and we continue to be a top provider of talented graduates and research to the space economy — an economy expected to grow to more than $1 trillion in the 2030s and triple that by 2050.
Autry leads the college’s efforts to deliver executive and MBA programs in space commercialization, while helping the university craft and implement a road map for its space efforts.
Before joining UCF, Autry was the director and clinical professor of space leadership, policy and business at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. He serves as the vice president for space development at the National Space Society and chairs the Business Case sub-committee for NASA’s In Space Production Applications program, which sends manufacturing experiments to the International Space Station.