It鈥檚 fair to assume that no one makes a more interesting morning entrance onto the 麻豆原创 campus than 麻豆原创鈥檚 new 鈥渟pace czar鈥�, Greg Autry. The associate provost for space commercialization and strategy rides into work on a skateboard, barely within the posted speed limit. He wears a suit, a tie, and a determined expression that says he鈥檚 going somewhere important and you might want to follow him.
鈥淚 get odd glances,鈥� Autry says, 鈥渂ut I鈥檓 usually going so fast that I have no idea what anyone is thinking.鈥�
Autry鈥檚 skateboard is also an inescapable analogy. It鈥檚 made from upcycled scrap carbon fiber from space companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. Autry brought his board with him to 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Business from the west coast earlier in 2024 to start a space commercialization program and to begin a university-wide effort to bolster the SpaceU brand.
鈥淲e currently have a logo and a football game [that help] bring awareness to [麻豆原创鈥檚 identity] of SpaceU,鈥� Autry says. 鈥淸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 麻豆原创 knowing they can participate in an industry that鈥檚 about to take off, no matter what field they鈥檙e interested in. This is the place to be.鈥�
As Florida鈥檚 premier engineering and technology university, 麻豆原创 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. 麻豆原创 is home to the Exolith Lab, where asteroid, Martian and lunar regolith simulants are created for space researchers worldwide, and the world鈥檚 largest lunar regolith test bin is located. 麻豆原创 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 麻豆原创 is developing a new program dedicated to the field, as well as another industry Autry is helping shape curriculum for.
Autry鈥檚 enthusiasm is based on a vision for the future merging with present-day reality. Prior to 麻豆原创, he launched the world鈥檚 first space leadership, business and policy program at Arizona State University鈥檚 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.
鈥淚鈥檓 confident it won鈥檛 take us long to reach our lofty goals,鈥� Autry says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e taking the Elon Musk approach: grow it quickly and innovate relentlessly to stay ahead of everyone else. We can do that at 麻豆原创 because we have a huge competitive advantage 鈥� geographically and with so much local demand in the space business. I鈥檝e been passionate about space my entire life, so this is a remarkable time for me, personally and professionally.鈥�
Like so many kids who watched the first Apollo moon landings, Autry dreamed about life in space. Those thoughts never vanished.
鈥淭he missions to the moon were life changing for me at a young age,鈥� he says. 鈥淲atching and reading about space became my escape.鈥�
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鈥檇 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鈥檚 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.
鈥淲hen I heard 麻豆原创 was serious about doing something amazing in space commercialization and taking SpaceU to another level, it meant the university鈥檚 vision aligned with my own,鈥� Autry says. 鈥淚 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.鈥�
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鈥檚 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.
鈥淚f you鈥檙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 鈥� we could go on and on.鈥�
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.
鈥淚t won鈥檛 be long before careers are available for anyone like me who always wanted to be involved in space but couldn鈥檛 get into an astronaut program,鈥� Autry says. 鈥淭his is where the preparation will happen, at 麻豆原创, to enter an industry with unlimited potential.鈥�
Autry is among those who believe space will produce the world鈥檚 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.
鈥淭he growth in space won鈥檛 follow a typical linear curve,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 reasonable that in the next 15 to 20 years the space economy will exceed the entire U.S. economy. Keep in mind, our first space race was driven by the government during the Cold War. This second space race is inspired by private enterprise. This is entirely different from anything we鈥檝e seen. And 麻豆原创 鈥� SpaceU 鈥� is literally right in the middle of it. That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 so enthusiastic to be here on the front end, and I鈥檓 encouraging everyone to join us for the ride.鈥�
