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Department of Astronautical Engineering (ASTE), USC

20th anniversary (celebration on February 18, 2025)

Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 2025

About USC Astronautics (ASTE)           University of Southern California (USC), Trojans

Event program (pdf)

Department of Astronautical Engineering (ASTE), USC

20th anniversary (celebration on February 18, 2025)

Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 2025

Mike Gruntman's remarks at the celebration

Fellow Rocket Scientists … and other esteemed colleagues.

We celebrate today the 20-th anniversary but the work to build USC Astronautics began earlier, in the mid-1990s, by developing a space-engineering specialization within the AME department. Already in 2002, a School's brochure noted that this initiative turned "around the aerospace program at USC."

On August 13, 2004, then Dean of Engineering Max Nikias formed a new independent academic unit focused on space, today's Department of Astronautical Engineering.

Thank you, Max, for your fateful decision.

There were three founding faculty members, Dan Erwin, Joe Kunc, and I. Soon, Dell Cuason joined us as the first staff member. Dell has been overseeing the department's operations until this day.

Without her dedication, we would have never achieved our place today.

Thank you, Dell.

Building a new department was truly challenging, and not all colleagues at USC were thrilled about this decision. I served as the founding chairman, and it became - for me - an unforgettable and never-again experience. But we persevered and succeeded.

Two dozen extraordinary part-time instructors from the space industry and government centers teach in our programs. They are our true pride and strength.

Thank you to all.

Our Master's program, among the largest in the country, recently reached a milestone of awarding more than 1000 degrees in 20 years.

The help of the School's Distance Education Network (DEN) and support from Kelly Goulis and her staff were indispensable for this success.

Thank you, DEN, Kelly, and Binh Tran.

We have made a difference to numerous students, opening for them a path to join the space enterprise and advance their professional careers. We persevered and succeeded despite numerous challenges and headwinds.

But nobody expects the road to Alpha Centauri, and beyond, to be easy.

Per Aspera ad Astra.

Through difficulties to the stars.

Video palyed at the event

News story: Celebrating 20 Years of USC Viterbi Astronautical Engineering (pdf)

Post factum.

In 2010, the University reorganized the ASTD Division into the Department of Astronautical Engineering.

Today, the Department is one of the largest space engineering educational programs in the United States (pdf).

A publication by USC School of Engineering in 2002 noted that Mike Gruntman's effort in building up USC Astronautics in the 1990s and early 2000s "turn[ed] around the aerospace program at USC."

An article in USC Viterbi magazine ("The Great 'What-Ifs' of USC Engineering," pp. 46-51, Fall 2021) noted that "It's perhaps no exaggeration to say the department [of Astronautical Engineering at USC] would not exist without Gruntman" (pdf).

The Master's program of the Department is particularly big. Mike Gruntman has been directing this program since its inception in the mid-1990s. From 2004-2024, the department awarded more than 1000 Master of Science degrees in Astronautical Engineering.

Awarded (annual) Master's degrees in Astronautical Engineering

Sputnik   Explorer   Vanguard   Astronautics   Missile defense   Baikonur Tyuratam   Saryshagan   Rocket equation   Rocket espionage   U-2   Neil Armstrong   USC

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