International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI), Madrid, Spain, 17- 19 November, 2008 1 Integrated Post-graduate Space Education and Training E. Gill, G. Chiocchia + , B. Escudier*, M. Lisi × , H. Stoewer ‡ , F. de Bruijn Chair of Space Systems Engineering (SSE), Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, e.k.a.gill@tudelft.nl *Supaero Aerospace, Toulouse, France, benedicte.escudier@isae.fr  + Department of Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy, gianfranco.chiocchia@polito.it × Telespazio SpA, Rome, Italy, marco.lisi@telespazio.com ‡ President Space Associates GmbH, St. Augustin/Bonn, Germany, heinzstoewer@spaceassociates.net Abstract The need of space industry, space agencies and other space-related institutions to increase their performance drives human resources management to a growing effort in education and training of staff in a continuous learning process. To meet this demand, there has been a growth in post-graduate educational programs on space-related subjects, particularly in Europe and the United States. The offered programs differ substantially in scope and characteristics, coverage and focus, quality and organization, and, up until now, there has been no coordination of these activities. This paper introduces several individual programs which provide more or less integrated approaches to space education, providing e.g. systems engineering, business engineering and personal skills development. Furthermore, to implement coordination between existing programs, the recently initiated concept of a Virtual Space Academy is presented which will allow coordination of post-graduate space education and realize cross-fertilization between the programs to enhance and stimulate space education. This paper provides an overview of post-graduate education and presents selected programs rooted at academia and industry. The programs are compared and analyzed in terms of their key characteristics. Finally, the mission and objectives of the recently initiated Virtual Space Academy are described. The initiative originated from a European nucleus but is open to international partners worldwide. The opportunities that the academy offers in providing a continuity of highly qualified space engineers and managers, maintaining a knowledge-base in line with current technology standards and trends, realizing cost savings through harmonization and cooperation within a virtual setting of the academy are also addressed. Keywords Post-graduate education, Space, SpaceTech, Systems Engineering, Virtual Space Academy. 1. INTRODUCTION The need of space industry, space agencies and other space-related institutions to increase their performance drives human resources management to a growing effort in training and education of staff in a continuous learning process. Furthermore, the space sector, which has traditionally been organized along technology and programmatic lines, is facing challenges which require integrated approaches involving particularly business and systems engineering mind sets [1, 2, 3]. To meet these demands, there is a growth in the number of post-graduate educational programs on space-related subjects, particularly in Europe. Existing programs differ, however, substantially in scope and characteristics, coverage and focus, quality and organization. More importantly, these activities are until now not coordinated. To respond to this need, a Virtual Space Academy has been initiated in May 2008. The Virtual Space Academy will harmonize these programs and activities and will allow coordination of post-graduate space education. This, in turn, will realize cross-fertilization between the programs to enhance and stimulate space education. To that extent, a minimum standardization of the courses and their contents is targeted without reducing their diversity. In that process, the feedback of the needs of industry and organizations, such as ESA and national space agencies are important to increase the quality and value of education. Cooperation within the Virtual Space Academy will allow mutual access to academic resources,