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What Would It Look Like To Live in Space? Aggies Are on a Mission To Find the Answers.

Launched last fall, a new space engineering program is studying how humanity can thrive in space.

By Jordan Herr ’23

Illustration by Tavis Coburn

Imagine what life could look like for future colonies on the moon and Mars. Do scenes of brilliant stars right outside the door, greenhouses full of dusty-red dirt and leisurely walks across craters spring to mind? Surely so. But what we wishful astronauts may not recognize is how complex even the simplest of these musings is. Imagine trying to take that meandering moonwalk again but without latitude and longitude to define any sense of direction!

Texas A&M University’s new space engineering master’s degree primes students to consider and overcome obstacles like these — or in the words of Dr. Robert Bishop ’79, vice chancellor for engineering of The Texas A&M University System and dean of the College of Engineering, “make sure humans thrive in space after they get there.”

This program will certainly set Texas A&M on a path to being an even stronger leader in the space industry.
- Dr. Robert Bishop ’79

Housed in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and launched in fall 2025, the Master of Engineering in Space Engineering transcends aerospace engineering, which covers aviation structures, materials and dynamics, to bridge the gap between how humans leave Earth and how they prosper beyond it.

“This program helps students address the unique challenges of space exploration, like colonization and habitation among celestial bodies, and even how to use space for national defense,” explained Dr. Manoranjan Majji ’06 ’09, associate department head for space engineering.
 

Texas A&M’s Personal Space Race

Aggieland has kept its eyes on the stars since it was designated a space-grant university in 1989, but the university has recently amplified its interstellar activities with the addition of more than the space engineering program.

Located on the International Space Station, the TAMU-SPIRIT Flight Facility will give Texas A&M researchers exclusive priority rights to test experiments in space. As a partnership between Texas A&M and Aegis Aerospace, the initiative carries on the Muñiz family’s tradition of generosity with Stephanie Murphy ’00 ’14, daughter of Alicia and Ed Muñiz and CEO of Aegis Aerospace, championing the cause.

The Texas A&M University Space Institute continues Texas’ proud legacy as a space leader by uniting commercial, government, and academic research and development partnerships under one umbrella. The first facility approved by NASA to lease land in Exploration Park at Houston’s Johnson Space Center and future home of the world’s largest lunarscape and Marscape, the Texas A&M Space Institute brings together over 300 faculty members involved in space-related research.

The program began with five students and three academic tracks that delve into human and robotic interstellar operations: bioastronautics and space-human factors; space robotics and autonomy; and position, navigation, timing and communication. As an interdisciplinary approach to space engineering entirely unique to Texas A&M, students select primary and secondary tracks to form a degree tailored specifically to their interests. This is just the program’s beginning with undergraduate, Master of Science and doctoral degrees planned and expectations for graduates to land careers with top space companies across the nation. 

From First Steps to Lasting Legacies 

In March 2024, Gov. Greg Abbott encouraged Texas universities to create space engineering degrees and lead the charge to get Americans on the moon and Mars. Texas A&M was the first university in Texas to rise to the challenge.

“Being the first to answer the governor’s call to launch a new space engineering program is exciting; it’s an opportunity to define what it means to educate students in space engineering without any confines of existing programs,” Bishop said. “This program will certainly set Texas A&M on a path to being an even stronger leader in the space industry, and its graduates will undoubtedly cement that legacy throughout the space industry’s workforce.”

As the first donors to commit a gift toward the program, Alicia and Edelmiro “Ed” Muñiz ’67 ’69 are no strangers to firsts-turned-legacies either. Ed was a member of Texas A&M’s inaugural class of aerospace engineers, and the couple’s milestone gift to establish an endowed chair for space engineering faculty will ensure the program’s future success.

“We’re excited to be the program’s first donors, but we’re even more excited that our endowment will go on forever,” said Ed, who served as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force before founding an engineering contract company that would become Aegis Aerospace, a leader in commercial space services. “When you get old, you start thinking about legacies and mortality. Everyone has to die, but your legacy doesn’t have to. You can set up a gift like this that continues long after you’re gone, and when I think about that, I feel immortal.”
 


The Muñizes’ legacy is more than their gift of an endowed chair, the professors the chair will support throughout time or the groundbreaking research those professors will unearth. It’s also the countless students who will receive an elite education in space engineering and the marks they will leave on the universe.

“Texas A&M graduates will be national leaders in advanced space missions,” assured Majji. “With sufficient resources, our students will drive innovation in space for the next generation. But if we want to educate and train these engineering leaders in space, we need to invest in them now.”

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