Space MED Program Program Overview Curriculum & Training How to Apply Leadership Contact Us Program Overview Home Education Medical Education Space MED Program Space MED Program > Program Overview About Our Program The Need for Expanding Space Medicine Training As space exploration evolves, the practice of space medicine must be redefined. NASA's focus on exploration-class missions relies on recruiting the healthiest astronauts as they plan for lengthy exposure to the spaceflight environment. These missions require more autonomy and reliance on clinical decision support due to communication delays, remoteness from Earth and limited resources. Meanwhile, commercial partners are pursuing low-Earth orbit missions and Mars exploration, utilizing crews with much more diverse medical conditions and needs. Both types of space travel require an expansion of space medicine education to build a robust network of scientists, flight surgeons and subspecialty-trained clinicians with specific knowledge of space medicine. The success of space travel relies on innovative solutions to ensure the health and safety of all spaceflight participants — government-recruited astronauts and private citizens alike. Tackling This Challenge Through the Space MED Program UC Irvine School of Medicine has established a comprehensive space medicine mission-based program to bridge the gap between the advancement of space exploration and meeting the diverse medical needs of spaceflight participants. The Space MED program's four-year longitudinal curriculum introduces foundational space medicine concepts system-by-system, alongside traditional medical school didactics. It teaches medical students how medicine functions in operational, mission-based contexts that are rarely encountered in conventional medical training, fostering the systems thinking crucial for complex healthcare challenges both on Earth and in space. The program features four years of didactic curricula, external clinical rotations at NASA and with local commercial spaceflight partners (SpaceX, VAST, Virgin Galactic), and a capstone research project that promotes human health and performance in space. Throughout the program, students receive mentorship from astronauts and leaders in the field. Upon graduation from the Space MED program, this next generation of physicians can apply their foundational knowledge of space medicine toward aerospace medicine residency programs or subspecialty training, positioning them to serve as future consultants, flight surgeons, researchers, or clinical experts interfacing with spacecraft designers and engineers. Mission Our mission is to educate and empower future physicians to support the diversity and expansion of humans in spaceflight. "As commercial spaceflight expands, we need a diversity of innovative and enthusiastic clinicians of all specialties to work with aerospace medicine physicians, researchers, engineers and designers to promote the health and safety of all spaceflight participants — from government-recruited astronauts to private citizens who may have all types of unique risk factors or comorbidities." -— Jonathan Steller, MD, Space MED Program Co-Director Mission Image: Vast / "Haven-1 Final Design"