Georgetown University Space Initiative

An incredible opportunity for students to get a promising start in the dynamic field of space policy! Students not just at Georgetown, but nationwide have been hungry for opportunities and we look forward to connecting them to this fantastic new fellowship! Thank you to the Matthew Izakowitz Family, Alex Coultrup and Josh Ingersoll as well as Dave Cavossa and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation for helping to create this! Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS)

Thank you to Dean Bellamy for joining us!

In personal news, I'm honored to share that I've been selected as a Pathways Intern at NASA's Office of International and Interagency Relations, which offers the opportunity to convert to a full-time position after graduation. As a current intern in the office, I've had an incredible opportunity to engage directly with NASA's international partnerships at a critical time for the agency. A special thank you to Shannon Ewan for being a fantastic mentor, and I'm looking forward to being a part of the OIIR team!

Congratulations to Ben Bliss, Nico Iraj Baumann, Marisa Bist, Shuai Li, and Sean Ramsey for winning the first-place prize of $2,500 at the Blue Origin and Carnegie Mellon University Space Innovation Challenge! Their presentation, linked below, details their pitch for a re-entry capsule tailored to CLDs and the ISAM market. Beating out a field of MBAs and Masters students as an all-sophomore team, they're an incredibly talented group of students who have been critical to the club's success over the past two years. They're the future of the space industry, and if you're looking for BD, Strategy, or Policy interns, look no further than the top of the page (seriously)! See below for their bios! Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Georgetown University Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service

GUSI had a great time at Space Vision 2024! Shuai Li, Nico Iraj Baumann, Ben Bliss, and Julen Payne of GUSI's Commercial Team came in 2nd in the Business Pitch Competition.

Over the past few months, I've had the incredible opportunity to participate in and organize incredible events on space diplomacy, heritage, and sustainability. It's an exciting time to enter the space industry and interact with the legislative and policymaking process through my internship at the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Thank you to all the mentors and friends whose help has been invaluable, especially those at the Georgetown University Space Initiative and Georgetown University Astronomical Society.

Since 1972, student organizations have been carrying the torch of space studies on Georgetown’s campus. Despite these challenges, the Space Initiative and Georgetown University Astronomical Society Society have played a key role in connecting students on campus with opportunities and events in the space industry. This summer, over 15 students from Georgetown are interning across the space industry in space policy, astrobiology, business, astronomy, and engineering. Thank you to all of the advisors and mentors who've helped Georgetown students find their places in the space industry. This year, Georgetown students hosted the national SpaceVisions conference–placing 3rd at its business place competition, started a high-power rocketry team, lobbied for NASA Science programs in partnership with The Planetary Society & ASD, placed 2nd in the Collegiate Space Competition, ran a mentorship program connecting a dozen students to leaders in the industry, and hosted weekly speaker events on topics ranging from the Biden admin's space policy to the exploration of Mars. We hope to continue working with faculty, administration, and the wider community to increase the profile of space opportunities on campus, with the goal of a Space Institute at Georgetown University.

This summer, Eda Toprak will be an intern in the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 project of CERN at Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) where she'll be studying cosmic rays. She is also the Head of Projects of the Georgetown Astronomical Society and a Junior at Georgetown University double majoring in Physics and Mathematics and minoring in Psychology from Türkiye.

This summer, Oleksandr Sinhayivskyy will be interning at Libra Group, the company behind Space Leasing International (SLI). He is an International Economics rising junior from Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and a fan of everything in aerospace.

Andres Permuy will return to Astroscale Japan as a Robotics & Computer Vision Engineering intern. As the former GUSI Co-President and after graduating from Georgetown this past May with a B.S. in Physics and a minor in Mathematics, Andres will be continuing his studies at Columbia University's School of Engineering in NYC. He will join the SEDS Chapter: The Columbia Space Initiative (CSI) while studying Mechanical Engineering.