In the early 1980s, John D. Odegard, the Dean of the College of Aerospace Sciences, invited Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, to come to UND to help organize a space education program within the college. Aldrin’s contributions included recommending the appointment of Dr. David Webb, a member of the 1985-1986 Presidential Commission on Space, to design the space studies program and to serve as the first Chair of the Department. In 1986, Dr. David Webb founded the Department of Space Studies as an integral part of the UND College of Aerospace Sciences. The original faculty included Dr. Richard Parker, life sciences; James Vedda, military and commercial space; Joanne Gabrynowicz, space law and policy; and Dr. Grady Blount, remote sensing and planetary geology. These original faculty members taught classes on campus and at the Grand Forks and Minot Air Force Bases.

In 1990, Dr. Charles A. Wood, then of the NASA Johnson Space Center, became chair of the Department and brought several educational innovations to fruition including increased use of the Internet. By 1996, the Department of Space Studies began offering classes through distance learning via www.space.edu. Distance learning has been extremely successful and in 1998 the Department of Space Studies became the largest graduate program at the University of North Dakota.

The College of Aerospace Sciences, renamed as the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, after its founder, has grown from an operation of three instructors and two aircraft in 1968 to a complex of seven buildings and other flight facilities on the UND campus and at the Grand Forks International Airport. More than 1500 students are enrolled in the school’s Departments of Aviation, Atmospheric Science, Computer Science, Space Studies and Earth System Science and Policy.

The school’s campus facilities include: Odegard Hall with classrooms, altitude chamber, atmospherium, and administration; Streibel Hall that houses the Computer Science Department; Clifford Hall housing the Space Studies, Atmospheric Sciences and Earth System Science and Policy departments as well as the Scientific Computing Center and the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC); and Ryan Hall with Aerospace Network and the UND Aerospace Foundation.

Today, the Department of Space Studies has approximately 20 students on campus and more than 100 students in the distance program. Over 650 Master of Science Degrees in Space Studies have been awarded since the Department’s inception in 1986. Space Studies graduates have careers in a variety of different space-related disciplines including government, business, science, law, medicine, education, military, and public relations.