Students from all majors are invited to register for the new Minor in Astrobiology at Georgia Tech. Welcoming its first enrolled students in Fall 2025, the minor is the latest degree offering from the College of Sciences and Georgia Tech Astrobiology Program. The Minor in Astrobiology will provide a broad, interdisciplinary introduction to the field of astrobiology while encouraging exploration beyond students’ primary fields of study.
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Georgia Tech has put another small satellite into low-Earth orbit. OrCa2b will enhance space domain awareness and improve the tracking of resident space objects (RSOs), such as debris and other satellites.
The satellite is the first of two CubeSats that will make up the Orbital Calibration 2 Mission (OrCa2a and OrCa2b), which will allow researchers to better track objects in Earth’s orbit from both the ground and from orbit. OrCa2b launched in March and OrCa2a is scheduled to lift off later this fall.
Researchers from Georgia Tech’s Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL) have been working on the 12U (20cm x 20cm x 30 cm) CubeSats since 2021 and inherited many of the same key design elements as its predecessor OrCa1, which launched in 2020.
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More than 100 researchers, faculty, industry representatives, alumni, and students came together on April 14 to explore the future of space research and exploration at the 2025 Yuri’s Day Symposium. Hosted by Georgia Tech’s Space Research Initiative (SRI), Yuri’s Day serves as an annual celebration of space research across the Institute, the state of Georgia, and beyond. It built on the success of Yuri’s Day 2024, and was designed to be interactive and drive participation through panel discussions, a poster session, and networking opportunities.
The day began with opening remarks from Georgia Tech’s Executive Vice President of Research Tim Lieuwen, Vice President of Interdisciplinary Research Julia Kubanek, and the SRI executive committee, comprised of Professor Glenn Lightsey and Associate Professors Mariel Borowitz and Jennifer Glass. They provided an update on the SRI’s latest achievements and its elevation to the Space Research Institute, one of Georgia Tech’s Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, on July 1.
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Early on, Georgia Tech graduate students William Trenton Gantt and Hugh (Ka Yui) Chen imagined working in the space industry.
“When I was 14, I dreamed about being in space one day,” recalls Chen, 22, a native of Hong Kong and a Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering. “I think the industry has been making space more accessible to everyone. Commercialization is a big part of enabling this.”
Gantt, an engineer and former U.S. Army veteran graduating with an MBA from the Scheller College of Business this spring, remembered seeing the space shuttle retire and companies begin privatizing space as he entered young adulthood.
“I’ve always been interested in space, and a lot of it comes from the challenge of going to space,” he observes. “Seeing how hard it is to get to space and seeing it become achievable — that to me was the most attractive thing about it.”
For Gantt, the feeling always brings to mind John F. Kennedy’s famous line that spelled out America’s space ambitions: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Recognizing Georgia Tech’s aerospace strengths, Gantt didn’t waste time building bridges within Scheller and in other parts of Georgia Tech. He founded the Scheller MBA Space Club, a first at the College, to track the industry as it grows and develops.
“I came from a military background, so I had my eye on the defense industry going into the MBA program. Georgia Tech, being the No. 2 aerospace engineering undergraduate school in the nation, I knew they already had strong industry connections. Making connections was a big goal coming into this program.”
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Polina Verkhovodova is headed to Washington, D.C. this summer to intern at Voyage Technologies and will receive $1,000 as a part of the 2025 Matthew Isakowitz Commercial Space Scholarship (MCCS), a scholarship that recognizes and supports promising students in the aerospace industry.
The AE doctoral student is one of 10 students selected for the program, which also provides professional networking opportunities and an executive speaker series to connect students with accomplished members of the space community.
“I am looking forward to a policy-focused internship through which I will learn how commercial space industry fits in the regulatory ecosystem in Washington, D.C.,” said Verkhovodova. “I want to gain more practical experience in this realm to learn how policy will shape the industry.”
The Portland, Oregon native studied at Caltech, receiving her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2022. She knew she wanted to study aerospace engineering as an undergraduate after she had the opportunity to compete in the NASA Big Idea Challenge, which had teams design and develop a lunar dust mitigation solution.
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In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. Several months later, the U.S. sent Explorer I into space. With two small objects, the space race began.
As of March 2025, more than 11,000 satellites are orbiting Earth. According to some estimates, there could be as many as 60,000 by 2030.
“In the Space Age, space activity was overtly geopolitical, and that’s never really gone away,” said Mariel Borowitz, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and director of the recently launched Center for Space Policy and International Relations. “But the major shift now is the rapid rise of commercial activity and the number of actors in space.”
Space traffic is global by nature — satellites cross over myriad countries while orbiting. Thanks to the Outer Space Treaty, every country has the right to access space. More actors in space, though, mean more trash and more potential collisions.
Borowitz and her colleagues in the Nunn School analyze and help develop policies on protecting space so it remains safe and usable in the future. In other words, they’re doing everything they can to make sure things don’t blow up.
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Through collaboration with industry leaders, the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is advancing its curriculum to better prepare students for today’s dynamic workforce, this time reaching beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
ECE has joined forces with Intelsat, a major operator of one of the world’s largest integrated satellite and terrestrial networks, to improve industry access for students and strengthen the School’s satellite communications curriculum.
“We are thrilled to partner with Intelsat,” said Arijit Raychowdhury, Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of ECE and professor. “This collaboration is a significant step in providing our students with cutting-edge knowledge and hands-on experience in a field that is crucial for global connectivity and technological advancement.”
Intelsat, with its administrative headquarters in McLean, Va., operates nearly 60 geostationary satellites, including satellites from all major manufacturers, to provide secure and reliable satellite connectivity to governments, businesses, and communities across the globe. The company has a presence of about 250 employees in Ellenwood, Ga.
“Georgia Tech is renowned for its innovative approach to engineering education and research,” said Carmel Ortiz, senior vice president of technology and innovation at Intelsat and a Georgia Tech alum. “This collaboration allows us to contribute to the development of future leaders in satellite communications, ensuring that the next generation is well-equipped to tackle the challenges of an increasingly connected world.”
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AE alumna Kathryn “Kathy” Engelhardt (AE 1982, M.S. AE 1983), née Dunlop, has returned to Georgia, steps away from her beloved Georgia Tech, grateful for every leg of her journey. She reflected on her extraordinary experiences, lifelong friendships, and the lessons learned. Georgia Tech equipped her to excel in industry and navigate male-dominated spaces with tenacity and grace.
Born to a Jamaican mother and father of Irish descent, Kathy’s fascination with space and aviation set her apart from her peers early on. Her first plane ride at five sparked a lifelong love for the skies. While vacationing in Italy at nine, the precocious child begged to stay in the hotel room to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing instead of exploring Italy.
“I loved to build things and was always taking things apart and putting them back together,” she shared.
Math came easy, and she told everyone who would listen that she wanted to be an astronaut. So much so that her stepfather’s German clients recommended that she go to Georgia Tech if she wanted to do aerospace and design rockets and space shuttles. She was only 13 then, but the idea stuck in her head. When the time came, she applied to Harvard, Princeton, and Georgia Tech. She was accepted to all three, but Georgia Tech was always her top choice.
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The space around Earth is central to life on the surface, encompassing myriad economic, technological, political, and even military considerations that affect the lives of millions. A new center devoted to space policy in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs seeks to support the School’s increasingly robust research and teaching in the area.
“Space is becoming an increasingly important domain for our economy and our national security in the United States, as well as worldwide,” said Mariel Borowitz, associate professor in the Nunn School and director of the new Center for Space Policy and International Relations, which holds its first event next week in Washington. “This center can be a hub that brings researchers together and makes progress on these key research issues.”
The Center, which counts six Nunn School researchers among its initial faculty, seeks to advance research in space governance, space security, and the development of space programs internationally, as well as in areas related to international cooperation and diplomacy.
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Dust and rocks residing on the surface of the moon take a beating in space. Without a protective magnetosphere and atmosphere like Earth’s, the lunar surface faces continual particle bombardment from solar wind, cosmic rays, and micrometeoroids. This constant assault leads to space weathering.
New NASA-funded research by Georgia Tech offers fresh insights into the phenomenon of space weathering. Examining Apollo lunar samples at the nanoscale, Tech researchers have revealed risks to human space missions and the possible role of space weathering in forming some of the water on the moon.
Most previous studies of the moon involved instruments mapping it from orbit. In contrast, this study allowed researchers to spatially map a nanoscale sample while simultaneously analyzing optical signatures of Apollo lunar samples from different regions of the lunar surface — and to extract information about the chemical composition of the lunar surface and radiation history.
The researchers recently published their findings in Scientific Reports.
“The presence of water on the moon is critical for the Artemis program. It’s necessary for sustaining any human presence and it’s a particularly important source for oxygen and hydrogen, the molecules derived from splitting water,” said Thomas Orlando, Regents’ Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, co-founder and former director of the Georgia Tech Center for Space Technology and Research, and principal investigator of Georgia Tech’s Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER).
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