CU-Boulder Space Program Overview

Commanding spacecraft ranging from Mercury space capsules to space shuttles, the CU-Boulder astronaut alumni are testament to the confidence NASA has shown in the university's faculty and students. Campus researchers began their foray into the Space Age in the late 1940s by sending instruments and experiments into the heavens on sounding rockets.

Since then, NASA spacecraft have launched 15 CU-Boulder alumni on 34 space missions, spanning virtually the entire manned space flight program. Moreover, CU-Boulder researchers have designed and built instruments for nearly every NASA planetary mission and for scores of astronomy and global change missions.

CU-Boulder ranks among the top five U.S. universities, excluding military academies, in the number of astronaut alumni. Also, CU-Boulder has received more than $160 million in NASA funding in the last three years, more than any other university.

"CU-Boulder has been a major player in space for more than 50 years," said Chancellor Richard L. Byyny. "Our astronaut alumni have played important roles in the manned space program."

CU-Boulder's space presence began with Scott Carpenter, one of the original seven astronauts selected by NASA who flew on the second American-manned orbital flight in 1962, piloting his Mercury capsule three times around Earth. Carpenter, who earned an honorary bachelor's degree in 1962, subsequently was in the Navy's Man-in-the-Sea Program, spending 30 days living and working on the ocean floor, becoming the only human to thoroughly explore both outer and inner space.

CU-Boulder Astronaut-Alum List