The Lynn Booth & Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace is renowned for advancing aerospace science and engineering with applications that reach across society. The Department is home to the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT). Since its founding in 1928, the Department has helped shape aerospace—from pioneering aerodynamics and fluid mechanics to establishing JPL in 1936 and, more recently, the Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST). The Department is developing technologies for spacecraft to survive high-speed atmospheric entry and build self-sustaining space infrastructure that can generate power, communicate, and repair itself. Faculty studying hypersonic flight are improving heat shields and trajectory design for future missions. The history-making Space Solar Power Demonstrator, launched in 2023, proved that lightweight, modular platforms can beam power wirelessly to Earth—a step toward space-based solar power. Bio-inspired robots that fly, roll, climb, and reconfigure hint at future teams able to scout terrain, assemble platforms, and maintain infrastructure on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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