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麻豆精品 S淲e currently have a logo and a football game [that help] bring awareness to [UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 identity] of SpaceU, 麻豆精品 S� Autry says. 麻豆精品 S淸We want to make it more well known this is the place to be] because we already have world-class researchers, direct connections to the space industry and this unique location. I want students to come to UCF knowing they can participate in an industry that 麻豆精品 S檚 about to take off, no matter what field they 麻豆精品 S檙e interested in. This is the place to be. 麻豆精品 S�
As Florida 麻豆精品 S檚 premier engineering and technology university, UCF was founded in 1963 to fuel the nearby space industry. Faculty and researchers across the university contribute to NASA missions such as OSIRIS-Rex and New Horizons, as well as the Artemis program. UCF is home to the Exolith Lab, where asteroid, Martian and lunar regolith simulants are created for space researchers worldwide, and the world 麻豆精品 S檚 largest lunar regolith test bin is located. UCF alums make up nearly 29% of Kennedy Space Center (KSC) employees, with their expertise ranking from engineering to physics and marketing. Future Knights at KSC may include experts in space medicine, as UCF is developing a new program dedicated to the field, as well as another industry Autry is helping shape curriculum for.
Autry 麻豆精品 S檚 enthusiasm is based on a vision for the future merging with present-day reality. Prior to UCF, he launched the world 麻豆精品 S檚 first space leadership, business and policy program at Arizona State University 麻豆精品 S檚 globally recognized Thunderbird School. As much as he enjoyed leading the progress and his life out west, Autry could not pass up the opportunity to launch a second business program around space at a university near the Space Coast, where a graduate program beginning in the Fall of 2025 and an undergraduate program to follow are already poised to lead the way into an all-new realm.
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Like so many kids who watched the first Apollo moon landings, Autry dreamed about life in space. Those thoughts never vanished.
麻豆精品 S淭he missions to the moon were life changing for me at a young age, 麻豆精品 S� he says. 麻豆精品 S淲atching and reading about space became my escape. 麻豆精品 S�
On Sept. 8, 1974, Autry stood at the Snake River Canyon in Idaho to watch Evel Knievel attempt to clear the quarter-mile-wide chasm in a specially designed Skycycle. Despite the failed jump, Knievel became a hero to Autry for his willingness to take flight in the closest thing to a personal rocket he 麻豆精品 S檇 ever seen. At the University of California, Irvine and then University of Southern California, Autry studied the commercial space industry before any other management scholar had recognized its significance. He spent several years teaching a summer course in space entrepreneurship for Florida Tech. While teaching at Arizona State, he would bring students to visit Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center where they could see the growing Florida commercial space businesses up close. Autry also visited the area during his tenure as NASA 麻豆精品 S檚 White House Liaison and while serving on the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Board at the FAA. The East Coast vantage point continually rekindled his passion for space launch.
麻豆精品 S淲hen I heard UCF was serious about doing something amazing in space commercialization and taking SpaceU to another level, it meant the university 麻豆精品 S檚 vision aligned with my own, 麻豆精品 S� Autry says. 麻豆精品 S淚 wanted to be part of the action. This is a rare opportunity to participate in something transformational and to influence a new generation of space leaders. 麻豆精品 S�
Now that he lives in Florida, Autry can take breaks from his work to watch rocket launches from his dock in Melbourne. He views these frequent events with the same awe he 麻豆精品 S檚 had since the first moon landings, only now he also carries a unique business perspective. Usually, he knows someone who has a payload or an investment on board.
麻豆精品 S淚f you 麻豆精品 S檙e in Central Florida, space is business. Everyone should be excited about it. The space industry creates tens of thousands of jobs and a commercial economy worth billions of dollars. Missions are often about communications, but they also drive crop yields for agriculture, management of fisheries, the monitoring of oil reserves and real estate, manufacturing, robotics, efficient transportation of goods and products 麻豆精品 S� we could go on and on. 麻豆精品 S�
As space travel expands and becomes less exclusive to the wealthiest demographic, it will require more people to be educated and trained in space-specific medicine, business, psychology, science, engineering, even hospitality for cities with launch sites around the world.
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Autry is among those who believe space will produce the world 麻豆精品 S檚 first trillionaire. Several global financial services project the space economy alone will generate $3 trillion in revenues by 2050. Autry thinks those numbers are probably too conservative.
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