The Student Astronaut Challenge

The Student Astronaut Challenge is an aero-space based competition sponsored by Florida State University and presented with cooperation from NASA and the Kennedy Space Center. The focus of the competition is the mobile Space Flight Simulator which was designed to replicate the retired NASA Space Shuttle.   

For the last six years, up to 200 Middle and High school students’ each year have converged at the Kennedy Space Center in February to compete in the Astronaut Challenge. Teams from as far south as Miami to as far north as Savanah, Georgia have traveled to Titusville to see who has the right stuff. In 2015 and 2017 guest teams from Dublin, Ireland traveled to the Kennedy Space Center to compete in the competition.   

Event one consists of an engineering challenge where students are provided an aero-spaced based system flight operation related problem. Working together as a team, they are required to devise and present a procedure for solving the problem to a board of NASA engineers and scientists.    

Event Two is the presentation of an original experimental proposal that could be performed on the International Space Station on a provided topic. The lab proposal is then presented to a board of NASA scientists.     

Event Three consists of three rounds (including a semi-final and final) where teams are required to perform the pre-flight operation, launch, orbit and landing of the Space Shuttle flight simulator and the operation and responsibilities of the mission control team. During the semi-final and final rounds, students are provided with in-flight emergencies that must be managed to safely complete their mission.    

Event Four consists of two rounds (including run-offs and finals) where two team members are required to perform a landing of the Space Shuttle flight simulator and the operation and responsibilities of the mission control team .