On Sept. 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy’s declaration, “We’re going to the moon,” inspired an entire country and an entire generation of aspiring young engineers and scientists in the aerospace industry. A few years later, when we did, in fact, land on the moon, millions of families watched the moon landing together from their living rooms, and again, this inspired an entire generation to think the unthinkable and dream the unimaginable. It also inspired the saying, “moonshot.” New fields related to space, communication systems, materials and propulsions were spawned at research universities around the country due to the top-down demand from industry. Those who pursued these fields and careers found themselves at the epicenter of the technology revolution that our country experienced during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and spawned an infinite amount of derivative technologies and fields.
In recent years, the local space industry has gone through a renaissance, although this time it’s being led by private industry. Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance are launching rockets at a rapid pace locally here in Central Florida at Cape Canaveral. Once again, they’re capturing the imaginations of an entire generation with ambitions of heading to Mars, colonizing the moon, and space tourism. The careers and educational backgrounds needed to actualize these ambitions are fast-paced, highly sought after, and constantly changing.
Well-established fields such as aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering are always good staple technical foundations to break into these exciting fields. There also are some new and fast-growing fields for those who are interested in a career in the aerospace world. Fields such as machine learning and big data analytics are highly sought after not only by the aerospace industry but also by the business world and other traditional consumer product companies. The fields related to material sciences and propulsion technology are also vital if we strive for Mars. These fields have extremely bullish prospects for the next several decades and are set to lead the next technology revolution over the coming several decades.
The aerospace world is a fast-moving and exciting field. Private industry has stepped in to fill the void left by the end of the last space program. Central Florida is a significant player in this industry, which is full of exciting and rewarding careers that offer a front row seat to history in the making. All of you who choose to pursue these highly in-demand fields will find this industry extremely challenging and rewarding and will not regret their decision.
The founders of the companies who are leading this private industry renaissance in aerospace were inspired as kids by our country’s “moonshot” feat of reaching the moon. Our current youth who become inspired by the space race going on today will become the next generation of aerospace engineers inspired to strive for the impossible and reach for what was previously thought to be unimaginable. It is in our best interest to steer our next generation of STEM practitioners toward these wildly rewarding and sought-after fields. At EduCoachOrlando.com, this is our specialty. We coach the next generation of STEM practitioners and enlighten them on the current trends of the industry and the educational and career steps required to get there. If you or your high school or college student are interested in learning more, reach out to us at EduCoachOrlando@gmail.com.
