Itβs fair to assume that no one makes a more interesting morning entrance onto the ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ campus than ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs new βspace czarβ, 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 heβs going somewhere important and you might want to follow him.
βI get odd glances,β Autry says, βbut Iβm usually going so fast that I have no idea what anyone is thinking.β
Autryβs skateboard is also an inescapable analogy. Itβs made from upcycled scrap carbon fiber from space companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. Autry brought his board with him to ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs 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.
βWe currently have a logo and a football game [that help] bring awareness to [ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs identity] of SpaceU,β Autry says. β[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 ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ knowing they can participate in an industry thatβs about to take off, no matter what field theyβre interested in. This is the place to be.β
As Floridaβs premier engineering and technology university, ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ 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. ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ is home to the Exolith Lab, where asteroid, Martian and lunar regolith simulants are created for space researchers worldwide, and the worldβs largest lunar regolith test bin is located. ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ 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 ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ is developing a new program dedicated to the field, as well as another industry Autry is helping shape curriculum for.
Autryβs enthusiasm is based on a vision for the future merging with present-day reality. Prior to ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½, he launched the worldβs first space leadership, business and policy program at Arizona State Universityβs 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.
βIβm confident it wonβt take us long to reach our lofty goals,β Autry says. βWeβre taking the Elon Musk approach: grow it quickly and innovate relentlessly to stay ahead of everyone else. We can do that at ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ because we have a huge competitive advantage β geographically and with so much local demand in the space business. Iβve been passionate about space my entire life, so this is a remarkable time for me, personally and professionally.β
Like so many kids who watched the first Apollo moon landings, Autry dreamed about life in space. Those thoughts never vanished.
βThe missions to the moon were life changing for me at a young age,β he says. βWatching and reading about space became my escape.β
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 heβd 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 NASAβs 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.
βWhen I heard ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ was serious about doing something amazing in space commercialization and taking SpaceU to another level, it meant the universityβs vision aligned with my own,β Autry says. βI 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.β
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 heβs 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.
βIf youβre 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 β¦ we could go on and on.β
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.
βIt wonβt be long before careers are available for anyone like me who always wanted to be involved in space but couldnβt get into an astronaut program,β Autry says. βThis is where the preparation will happen, at ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½, to enter an industry with unlimited potential.β
Autry is among those who believe space will produce the worldβs 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.
βThe growth in space wonβt follow a typical linear curve,β he says. βItβs 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 weβve seen. And ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ β SpaceU β is literally right in the middle of it. Thatβs why Iβm so enthusiastic to be here on the front end, and Iβm encouraging everyone to join us for the ride.β
