How do I get into the space industry without an aerospace degree?

Most space startups hire software engineers, operations people, designers and business roles from outside aerospace. Learn the industry context through newsletters like Orbital Index and Payload, join community events like NASA Space Apps or SGAC, and apply directly to small teams through boards like Rocket Crew.

Where do space startups post jobs?

Dedicated boards like Rocket Crew and Space Individuals specialise in New Space companies. Many roles at small startups are never posted publicly, so writing directly to startups you believe in works better than it should.

How to break into the space industry

The space economy hires more software engineers than astronauts. Here is the practical path in: what to read, where the community gathers, and where the jobs are. Every link checked, everything stale culled.

Learn the industry

You do not need an aerospace degree to be useful in space. You need context: how the industry fits together, who builds what, and why the economics changed.

Orbital Index ↗

The best weekly technical newsletter in space. Dense, free, no hype. Read it for three months and you will know the landscape.

Payload ↗

Daily business-of-space coverage. This is where funding rounds, contracts and policy land first.

International Space University ↗

The classic formal route: interdisciplinary space studies programs with an alumni network across every agency and major company.

Our founder interviews

27 space founders on how they actually got started, funded and hired. The unfiltered version of the industry.

The Space Barons ↗

The book that explains how billionaire capital restarted the space race and created the market every startup here competes in.

Meet the community

Space is a small industry that hires through its own network. Show up, and it is surprisingly easy to be known.

Space Generation Advisory Council ↗

The global network for students and young professionals: local events, working groups, and a genuine pipeline into agencies and startups.

NASA Space Apps Challenge ↗

The world’s largest space hackathon, held in hundreds of cities every October. The lowest-friction way to build something and meet people.

London Space Network ↗

Monthly happy hours for the UK space scene. Every space hub has an equivalent; find yours and go.

Find a job

Startups in this directory are hiring across engineering, software, operations and business roles. These boards specialise in exactly that.

Rocket Crew ↗

The biggest board dedicated to New Space companies, updated constantly.

Space Individuals ↗

European-leaning aerospace job board with agency and startup roles side by side.

The directory itself

Pick ten startups you believe in and write to them. Small teams read their inboxes; half the jobs are never posted.

Building a space startup?

There's a separate kit for you: grants, accelerators and the investors who actually write space checks.

Open the founder toolkit

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