Caltech Space Challenge

We officially welcomed our 32 students to Caltech for the 2026 Caltech Space Challenge yesterday! 🚀

Over the next week, these talented graduate students will take part in an intensive space mission design competition, working in two teams and building their concepts from scratch to final proposal. Along the way, they will collaborate closely with mentors from industry, NASA, and academia, sharpen their technical and teamwork skills, and connect with peers from around the world who share their passion for space exploration.

Arrival day is just the beginning, and we are so excited for the week ahead.

A special thank you to our generous donors for making the 2026 Caltech Space Challenge possible: Keck Institute for Space Studies, JPL, Lynn Booth & Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace, Caltech CAST, DCubed, Honeybee Robotics, PARSEC, and OKSI.

The Caltech Space Challenge is back!! The applications for the competition are now open to graduate students around the world. Next year's competition, which will take place in March, will be a tremendous opportunity for students to challenge themselves in a group project designing a daring space mission in collaboration with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory experts and network with both peers and leaders in the aerospace industry. Please apply or share this with those who may be interested!

Industry experts are also welcome to reach out and contact us at [email protected] to discover how they can participate and support this year's competition.

Special thanks to all the mentors, speakers, and judges who make the Caltech Space Challenge possible! 🙌Thank you for sharing your time, your wisdom, and your enthusiasm. 👏

Space challenge students certainly felt inspired this week and we hope they carry this passion and determination with them in their future missions! ❤️🚀

The Caltech Space Challenge formed friendships out of these strangers through a tough week of mission design 🚀, lots of late nights🌛, and a ton of coffee! ☕

Challenge week has been a lot of work--but also a ton of smiles! 😝 Concentrated moments mixed with laughs among new friends are what make this experience most memorable. 🥰

Although the Caltech Space Challenge is a team competition, students recognized the team's strength relies on their individual contributions! 👊 Here they are focused on crunching away at mass budgets 🧮, doing science instrument trade-offs 🔬, and trajectory calculations 💫 for their sample return mission from Titan. 🚀

This years exciting lecture series has so far been an enlightening experience for students from both teams! It's not too late to tune in online for any of the talks from our wonderful distinguished speakers this week! Thanks to experts from NASA JPL, Glenn, and Lockheed Martin for providing wonderful lectures and resources as well as fielding all kinds of questions from our competitors. 😍🤓

Space challenge students had unique chances to tour a fantastic lineup of Caltech Labs including CAST/Aerospace Robotics, Exoplanet Technology, Hypersonics, Space Structures, Turbulence, Bipedal Robotics, Planetary Science.

Team Explorer and Team Voyager ready to kick off the 2022 Caltech Space Challenge in their team headquarters!

A first look at the 2022 Caltech Space Challenge students excited to jump into the competition this year! 🚀

Lt. Gen. Larry James, the Interim Director of JPL, kicked off the Caltech Space Challenge 2022 with an exciting overview of JPL. What an amazing way to start the competition! 🚀