SpaceForge
Drive Over Diploma. Question Over Credential.
The 3.0 GPA floor is a sanity check. Above it, we filter on the question you bring.
Graduate-level reading takes work — that is what the GPA floor protects against. Above the floor, we look at the work you have shipped, the cross-disciplinary question you cannot solve from one field alone, and the 60-second video pitch where you tell us, in your own voice, why you would rather learn five new disciplines than master one.
Skills can be taught. The question you bring with you cannot. That self-selection is the program's most powerful asset.
6
Classes
18
Credits
12
ASU Schools
3
Schools per Class
Per module — at a glance
- Tuition
- $4,500
- Credits
- 3
- Length
- 7.5 weeks
- Time
- 15–20 hrs/wk
- Start
- Fall 2026*
* Pilot cohort target; final timing pending ASU approval. No prerequisites.
Six Classes · Three Schools Each · Twelve Schools Total
Six classes, co-taught by three ASU schools each.
Each 7.5-week class is designed to be co-taught by three ASU schools: one Lead Professor for continuity and two Rotating Guest Professors who bring their discipline's lens into the same room. Twelve ASU schools across the six-class sequence — the cohort gets cross-disciplinary by construction, not by bolt-on elective.
Every class opens with one real, unresolved cross-disciplinary question and closes with an artifact tested against a stakeholder who could actually act on it. The three professors play three different roles — Architect, Critic, Synthesizer — rotating weekly. There are no lectures.
How Space Programs Actually Get Built
Aerospace Engineering & Space Systems
Space Content
Co-taught by three ASU schools
- LeadW.P. Carey School of Business
- GuestIra A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
- GuestSchool for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS)
Why this trio
Engineers design what's technically possible. Business school sets what's financially viable. SFIS reveals what's organizationally survivable. Programs die at the seams between all three.
How the world's most complex programs get architected, funded, and run end-to-end — and why they fail. Students learn systems engineering as a leadership discipline alongside program economics and organizational survivability: evaluating technical feasibility, assessing program risk, leading cross-functional teams, and making high-stakes decisions where a single mistake can destroy a $500 million asset.
What cross-disciplinary actually means here
Inputs: Brunelleschi's Florence dome (1418–1436, invented the crane as the project demanded it) · Manhattan Project compartmentalization · Toyota lean production · SpaceX vertical integration · Boeing 787 outsourcing crisis
→ A defensible answer to "what's the right organizational shape for a 10-year, 200-person space program?" — a framework a student can apply to any program proposal and predict its failure modes before kickoff.
What You'll Learn
- Systems engineering as a management discipline
- Spacecraft architecture: how subsystem trade-offs drive program decisions
- Launch vehicle economics, propulsion options, and provider selection
- Power budgets, thermal constraints, and mass margins as business risks
- Integration, test campaigns, and mission assurance governance
Deliverables
- Cross-disciplinary feasibility assessment
- Program risk and governance analysis
- Systems architecture stakeholder brief
- Peer-reviewed leadership case study
Sensor to Signal: Turning Data Into Decision
Data Science, AI & Computational Intelligence
Space Content
Co-taught by three ASU schools
- LeadSchool of Computing and Augmented Intelligence (SCAI)
- GuestSchool of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE)
- GuestWalter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Why this trio
Scientists know what the sensor measures. AI scales it. Cronkite knows how to translate it into a decision-maker's language — the gap that kills 80% of intelligence products before they reach a desk.
How organizations extract insight from massive datasets and make decisions with AI. Students learn to evaluate data-driven claims, commission analytical work, and translate findings for non-technical decision-makers — using space-sector data as the operating context.
What cross-disciplinary actually means here
Inputs: Polynesian wayfinding (reading swells, stars, bird patterns under uncertainty) · Airline cockpit crew resource management · Radiologist double-read protocols · Bayesian forecasting · Kalman filtering
→ A field doctrine for human–AI decision-making when the sensor data is incomplete or contradictory — the doctrine no AI lab has written because they don't have the wayfinders, the pilots, or the radiologists in the room.
What You'll Learn
- Remote sensing, SAR imagery, and RF signal intelligence as business inputs
- Evaluating machine learning models, training data, and AI vendor claims
- Predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and operational decision support
- Autonomous systems: on-orbit AI, governance, and strategic implications
- Data pipelines, cloud architecture, and the economics of compute at scale
Deliverables
- Data-driven decision brief using space sector data
- AI/ML application evaluation framework
- Predictive analytics dashboard concept
- Technical translation presentation for non-technical audience
New-Space Ventures: Building, Funding, Surviving
Space Venture Strategy, Finance & Commercialization
Space Content
Co-taught by three ASU schools
- LeadW.P. Carey School of Business
- GuestSandra Day O'Connor College of Law
- GuestThunderbird School of Global Management
Why this trio
Founders die from three causes: capital structure, regulatory misstep, or losing the international market. Each school is one of those failure modes. Putting all three in the room is the only way the student sees all three coming.
Where the money is — and where it's going. Students analyze the space economy's value chains, evaluate venture-stage companies, build financial models for space businesses, navigate ITAR/EAR and FCC licensing, and develop investor-ready pitch decks for dual-use, cross-border markets.
What cross-disciplinary actually means here
Inputs: Wright Brothers patent wars (1903–1917) · Qualcomm CDMA cross-licensing strategy · GPS-vs-Galileo standardization battle · SpaceX–Iridium spectrum disputes
→ A defensible playbook for IP strategy in dual-use, multi-jurisdictional space tech — the area where most new-space founders get killed and most law schools don't teach the operational side.
What You'll Learn
- Space economy value chains: upstream launch to downstream services
- Venture capital, SPACs, and space-specific investment thesis development
- Revenue models: SaaS, capacity-as-a-service, data licensing, and rideshare
- Go-to-market for dual-use (civil/defense) and export-controlled products
- Regulatory navigation: FCC licensing, FAA launch permits, ITAR/EAR compliance
Deliverables
- Space venture business plan
- Financial model & investor pitch deck
- Market analysis & competitive landscape report
- Simulated board presentation
What's Worth Doing in Space?
Space Science, Mission Design & Research Methodology
Space Content
Co-taught by three ASU schools
- LeadSchool of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE)
- GuestSchool of Sustainability
- GuestSchool of Politics & Global Studies
Why this trio
"Worth doing" requires scientific merit + long-horizon ethics + the political coalition that makes it actually fundable. Remove any one and the question collapses into the wrong answer.
NASA's $3 billion planetary science budget is allocated through a governance process every MBA student should study. Designed to be co-taught by the SESE faculty who lead Psyche, OSIRIS-REx, and Mars 2020 instruments — paired with Sustainability and Politics for the multi-decade ethics and political-coalition dimensions. Students learn to sit across the table from a principal investigator, ask the right questions, and translate scientific findings into business cases and policy recommendations.
What cross-disciplinary actually means here
Inputs: Polynesian wayfinding (the actual question of "where would you go and why") · Lewis & Clark mission planning · Darwin's Beagle voyage prioritization · James Webb design tradeoffs
→ A multi-century framework for what's worth exploring and what isn't — a synthesis no single discipline can produce because each only sees its own slice of "exploration."
What You'll Learn
- Planetary science, astrobiology, and heliophysics as industry drivers
- Orbital mechanics, mission design, and delta-v budgets as resource allocation
- Decadal Surveys, peer review, and the governance of scientific priorities
- Evaluating TRL levels, research claims, and technology maturation pathways
- From scientific discovery to commercial application: the translation pipeline
Deliverables
- Mission concept analysis (business viability + scientific merit)
- Research translation brief for non-scientific audience
- Scientific due diligence assessment
- Mission design review presentation
When Things Go Wrong: Operations Under Pressure
Space Operations, Logistics & Supply Chain Management
Space Content
Co-taught by three ASU schools
- LeadIra A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
- GuestW.P. Carey School of Business — Supply Chain Management
- GuestCollege of Health Solutions
Why this trio
When a mission anomaly cascades, the cause is almost never purely technical. It's a supply-chain delay → a hardware compromise → a crew-fatigue decision. All three are co-causal — and no single-discipline program puts all three in the room.
How do you manage a supply chain where a single delayed component pushes a $300 million launch by six months — and the customer can't switch providers? Students analyze the unique operational and logistics challenges of space: launch campaign management, constellation fleet operations, orbital sustainability regulation, and the supply-chain fragilities that determine which companies deliver on time and which go bankrupt trying. Fulton leads on reliability engineering, W.P. Carey SCM (#1 U.S. News) brings supply-chain rigor, Health Solutions covers the aerospace-medicine and human-factors dimensions of crewed and tele-operated systems.
What cross-disciplinary actually means here
Inputs: Tenerife disaster (1977) · Three Mile Island human-factors lessons (1979) · Toyota Andon-cord protocol · ISS crew sleep-cycle protocols · Iridium operational anomaly response
→ A field guide for running a 200-satellite constellation when three things break at once — covering hardware, supply chain, software, and the humans making real-time calls in the loop.
What You'll Learn
- Launch operations: pad flow, countdown management, and range coordination
- On-orbit operations: station-keeping, LEOP, and anomaly resolution
- Ground segment architecture: MOCs, ground stations, and data pipelines
- Space debris, conjunction assessment, and orbital sustainability regulation
- Supply chain resilience: radiation-hardened parts, ITAR, and sole-source risk
Deliverables
- Launch campaign management plan with risk analysis
- Supply chain vulnerability assessment for a real constellation program
- Operations cost model: human-intensive vs. autonomous fleet management
- Space sustainability policy recommendation
Designing the Rulebook: Policy as Engineering
Design, Communication & Innovation Policy
Space Content
Co-taught by three ASU schools
- LeadSchool for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS)
- GuestHerberger Institute for Design and the Arts
- GuestSandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Why this trio
Policy is engineering — but most policy schools don't prototype. Herberger brings design-thinking and simulation. SFIS brings the systems frame. Law writes the statute that has to survive the first commercial dispute.
The best technology loses to the best story — every time. The Apollo program succeeded because a president communicated a vision, policymakers allocated resources, and designers made complexity comprehensible. Students learn policy architecture, design thinking applied to sociotechnical systems, and statutory drafting — the skills that determine whether technically excellent programs get funded, built, and supported by society.
What cross-disciplinary actually means here
Inputs: Polynesian wayfinding (multi-generation oral knowledge transmission) · Catholic Canon Law (1000+ years of text-based jurisprudence) · Common Law precedent system · WIPP nuclear-waste warning design
→ A doctrine for how space law should be drafted to survive 200 years of unforeseen technology. No law school teaches this because no law school has the planetary scientists or the nuclear engineers in the room.
What You'll Learn
- Design thinking applied to complex sociotechnical systems
- Translating technical programs (SBIR, STTR, OTAs) for non-technical audiences
- Space policy frameworks: Artemis Accords, ITU spectrum, IADC debris guidelines
- Innovation ecosystems: tech transfer, TRL valleys, and NewSpace incubation models
- Stakeholder mapping, coalition building, and congressional advocacy strategy
Deliverables
- Space governance policy brief for a real regulatory question
- Strategic communication campaign for a space program or company
- Design sprint: reimagining a public-facing space experience
- Stakeholder presentation to a simulated congressional committee
Cyclical Rotation
Start Anywhere. Complete the Loop.
No prerequisites. Every quarter a new module launches. Join in any quarter and rotate through all six.
Each module runs for 7.5 weeks. In the proposed structure, students complete all six modules in any order toward the 18-credit ASU Graduate Certificate in Space Systems & Strategy (proposed).
The Method Is the Curriculum
You Learn the Build Method, Not Just the Field
SpaceForge was built by one person directing AI — and the program proposes to teach you the same way of working.
Direct the AI
You point AI at real aerospace problems and own the result. The scarce skill now is framing the work and judging the output — not memorizing what an AI already holds.
Decisions Compound
In the mission simulators, an early call constrains every later one — the way real program architecture does. You feel the cost of a thin decision; you don't just read about it.
You Ship and Defend
You build real decision artifacts — a cascade model, a risk brief, a twin variant — and defend them against advisor critique. The deliverable is your judgment, not a recall score.
The Method Travels
What you build in the space domain re-applies anywhere. The way of working is what becomes yours. You leave with a method you can point at the next problem, in the next industry, on the next team.
This proposal pairs the program with a proposed doctoral project at ASU's School for the Future of Innovation in Society that would study the same build method, subject to institutional approval.
How You Learn
No Exams. No Busywork. Only Real Deliverables.
Every assignment is built for real-world stakes. The program is designed so your feasibility report goes to real organizations and your financial model goes to venture firms. On the last day, the design intent is for you to pitch to people who can hire you or fund your ideas. The design intent is for the work to leave the classroom, not stay in it.
The platform underneath: mission simulations where decisions compound and curveballs hit, AI coaches that read your work and the criteria you'll be graded against, and a curriculum that goes through a multi-stage editorial review before it ever reaches you.
Learning
Writing Coach
Reads the assignment criteria, your enrolled modules, and your prior drafts — then tells you which expectations the draft already meets and which still need work, with a suggested rewrite. Run it as often as you want before faculty see anything.
Research Coach
Searches academic databases on your capstone topic, returns the handful of papers worth reading from the hundreds a search returns, and cites the exact passage that supports your argument. Remembers what you have already cited so the same paper doesn't come back twice.
Cross-Module Knowledge Graph
An insight from your venture quarter resurfaces when you hit the same constraint in operations weeks. The map tracks how concepts repeat across every module so the program reinforces itself.
Simulators
Decisions That Compound
Simulations across mission systems, payload, economics, operations, policy, and habitation all work the same way: an early choice becomes a budget shortfall later, and the debrief shows you the line from cause to consequence. You don't pick A, B, or C from a menu; you weigh tradeoffs the way the work actually happens.
Subject-Matter Advisors
Every simulation runs alongside several advisor voices — a facts voice that cites what's known, a synthesis voice that argues the call, and a longer-horizon voice that flags what might change. Difficulty scales by background so engineers, MBAs, and policy people can run the same scenario from their own entry point.
Collaboration
Integrated Team Workspace
Tasks, messages, shared documents, and project timelines in one place. Every cross-disciplinary team operates from a shared command center.
Assessment
Structured Peer Review
Your first module is probationary. Faculty and peers evaluate collaboration, intellectual courage, and cross-disciplinary contribution using structured rubrics.
Professional Deliverables
Technical feasibility reports, financial models, working prototypes, and live pitches to industry panels. Faculty score against the rubric practitioners use to review work in production — the same one behind the Collision Engine.
The Collision Engine
When an engineering student's deliverable overlaps with a policy student's analysis, the platform detects the collision and opens a shared thread. These are not accidents -- they are the entire point of cross-disciplinary education. The Collision Engine is what makes SpaceForge more than six modules taught in sequence.
Delivery Model
Both Tracks Cover the Same Curriculum on Different Schedules
Choose the schedule that fits your life. Both tracks meet in person and cover the same content in the same module cycle.
Weekday Evenings
Designed for local ASU students on campus. Same faculty, same content, same deliverables as Track B.
1-2 evenings per week
On the Tempe campus
Same rigor and deliverables as Track B
Executive Hybrid
One weekend per month in person on the Tempe campus. Remaining weekends asynchronous online. For working professionals and MSTS students.
One weekend per month in person (Sat – Sun, 8 AM – 5 PM)
~18 contact hours per in-person weekend
Remaining weekends: asynchronous online
Faculty Model — Lead + Two Rotating Guests
Three professors per class. Twelve ASU schools across the sequence.
Each class is co-taught by one Lead Professor (attends every session — owns continuity) and two Rotating Guest Professors (each contributes ~7 sessions in their discipline window plus the triad bookends). All three play differentiated roles — Architect, Critic, Synthesizer — that rotate weekly so no professor ever drives a session solo.
Founding-cohort Lead and Guest assignments are being finalized. Module leads will be named before the application deadline.
How Space Programs Actually Get Built
W.P. Carey (Lead) + Fulton + SFIS
Sensor to Signal: Turning Data Into Decision
SCAI (Lead) + SESE + Cronkite
New-Space Ventures: Building, Funding, Surviving
W.P. Carey (Lead) + Sandra Day O'Connor Law + Thunderbird
What's Worth Doing in Space?
SESE (Lead) + Sustainability + School of Politics & Global Studies
When Things Go Wrong: Operations Under Pressure
Fulton (Lead) + W.P. Carey SCM + Health Solutions
Designing the Rulebook: Policy as Engineering
SFIS (Lead) + Herberger + Sandra Day O'Connor Law
3 schools per class × 6 classes = 12 ASU schools involved across the six-module sequence. Lead Professors carry continuity (one course-load equivalent each); Guest Professors rotate in for their discipline window (half a course-load each). No single discipline owns the curriculum — and the math fits inside standard faculty appointments.
In the proposed structure, each module Lead and the two Guest Professors are drawn from the schools listed above. Founding-cohort assignments will be finalized once the program is approved.
SpaceForge or MSTS?
Same curriculum. Different commitments.
SpaceForge is the foundation. MSTS is the full degree. Every SpaceForge credit is designed to carry forward toward the degree, subject to institutional approval — so the choice is about where to enter, not which curriculum to take.
Pick SpaceForge if
You want to test the format before you commit to the degree.
- Start with one module — $4,500, 7.5 weeks, 15–20 hrs/week.
- Stack credits as your appetite and budget allow; stop anywhere.
- No application gate to MSTS later — every credit is designed to carry forward.
- Designed to confer ASU alumni status at the Graduate Certificate (6 modules) level (proposed).
Pick MSTS if
You want the degree on day one with immersions built in.
- 42 credits, $67,500 total ($16,875 / quarter), single admit.
- Three immersions included (FL / TX / DC); travel + lodging is the student's responsibility.
- Designed to confer the full ASU master's degree (proposed).
- Capstone defense and Integration Practicum bring the six disciplines together.
Both pathways are subject to ASU institutional approval. Travel and lodging for immersions are estimated in the cost guide.
Your Credential Pathway
From One Module to a Master's Degree
SpaceForge is the foundation of every credential. Start with a single module and build up — every credit is designed to carry forward to the next level, subject to institutional approval.
Start With One Module
3 creditsTake any single module. No commitment beyond 7.5 weeks. If you love it, keep going. If not, you walk away with 3 ASU graduate credits (proposed; subject to institutional approval) and a sharper read on the format.
Graduate Certificate
18 creditsYou have completed the full cross-disciplinary rotation. In the proposed structure, this certificate would be issued by ASU's SFIS, Rob Walton College of Global Futures, with ASU alumni status included. Many stop here. If you want more, you have momentum.
MicroMasters
27 creditsGraduate Certificate + Integration Practicum + Capstone Venture Sprint. Designed as a standalone ASU credential, with all 27 credits designed to carry forward into the ASU MSTS degree, subject to institutional approval.
ASU Master of Space Technology and Systems (MSTS)
42 creditsMicroMasters (27 cr designed to transfer in, subject to institutional approval) + space elective + integrative seminar + 3 immersions (FL, TX, DC) + capstone defense. Designed to confer ASU alumni status.
Capstone Experiences
Real Stakeholders Evaluate Your Capstone Work
Real-world engagements that prove you can deliver, not just discuss. Each credential level culminates in a capstone experience with real stakes.
Integration Practicum
A quarter-length real-world consulting engagement. The program is designed to match teams to actual problems sourced from the NewSpace network, ASU Space Alliance, and industry partners. This is not a simulation — the design intent is for sponsoring organizations to use your deliverables.
- Matched to real industry or government challenge
- Cross-disciplinary teams mirror professional reality
- Faculty AND sponsoring organization evaluate your work
- Deliverables used by the sponsoring organization
Required for: MicroMasters Completion
Capstone Venture Sprint
A full-semester venture development cycle. Take a concept from any previous module and build it launch-ready. Designed to culminate in a public Demo Day with industry judges and venture capital participation.
- Full venture development from concept to pitch-ready
- Public Demo Day with industry judges and VC participation
- Strongest concepts receive mentorship connections
- Seed funding introductions for top ventures
Required for: MicroMasters Completion
An AI-Powered Platform Replaces the Video Library
SpaceForge is not a video library. It's an AI-powered learning platform built for graduate-level space professionals.
AI Research Coach
Graduate-level advisor that knows your academic history, searches arXiv, reviews methodology, and prepares you for capstone defense.
Mission Control Simulator
Team-based decision-making under real mission pressure. Play Mission Control with real telemetry and cascading consequences.
Live Mission Integration
Real SpaceX launches and NASA milestones become hands-on exercises — orbital mechanics problems from actual conjunction events.
Knowledge Graph
Visualize how 200+ concepts connect across six modules and the broader space industry — companies, regulations, and technologies.
Peer Workshops
Students teach each other. Earn credentials for sharing expertise. A Q3 student who aced venture modeling coaches Q1 students on business cases.
SpaceForge Intel
Federal contract intelligence: curated SAM.gov opportunities, salary benchmarks, hiring trends, and career placement for the space industry.
Competency Portfolio
Verified simulation scores and credentials that employers can trust more than resumes. Shareable with a single link.
Industry Certifications
See exactly how SpaceForge competencies map to PMP, FAA Part 107, ITAR compliance, and other industry certifications.
Cohort Events
Virtual pitch nights, cross-cohort debates, and mission control tournaments. Alumni return to judge, employers come to scout.
The Space Industry Needs People Who Can Lead Across Boundaries.
SpaceForge is where engineers learn venture strategy, where MBAs learn why orbits determine business models, and where everyone learns to lead across disciplines. Six modules. Twelve schools. One cohort that thinks differently from day one.