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The space MBA merges the university 麻豆精品 S檚 excellence in both space and online education to develop forward-thinking leaders ready to shape the future of the space sector. This part-time, fully online graduate business program spans 24 months and blends core MBA courses with four specialized electives in space entrepreneurship, governmental and commercial space finance, space leadership and the global space domain. With its flexible, asynchronous format, students can learn from anywhere on Earth 麻豆精品 S� or even in orbit.

At the forefront of this future-ready pathway is Zaheer Ali, a new instructor in the College of Business, and program director of UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 space commercialization and strategy initiative. He spent more than a decade at NASA and previously led space efforts across the defense and national security enterprise.

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Ali will work closely with Autry and continue his work should Autry be confirmed as chief financial officer at NASA.

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Ali has held executive roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he led global strategy for high performance computing and advised numerous space startups, including Pulsar Space, Magdrive, Parsimoni, ThinkOrbital, Paterson Aerospace and Space Railway. He is a frequent speaker on topics such as space innovation, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology, the future of work and enterprise agility.

Earlier in his career, Ali served as senior manager at the Universities Space Research Association, leading efforts in aviation data science, AI, quantum science and nanotechnology for NASA Ames. He was a senior member of the project management office for NASA 麻豆精品 S檚 Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, overseeing software development, safety and quality, laboratory buildouts and international science ground operations.

He has a bachelor 麻豆精品 S檚 degree in physics from the University of California Berkely and an executive master of global management from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

The Online Space MBA starts Spring 2026 with a Dec. 1 application deadline. For more information about the program, visit .