Space-related education in Brazil: the recent creation of Astronautical Engineering courses and other patterns

The goal of this paper is to describe how space-related engineering is developing in Brazil. This is a very recent development, especially at undergraduate level. We posited three main reasons for the recent expansion of astronautical engineering in Brazil: i) the expansion of the Brazilian Higher Education system as a whole; ii) the specialization of departments in engineering, with the creation of more specialized majors, first at graduate and then at undergraduate level; iii) the possible increasing demand for space-related engineering that will most likely grow in the following years due to new applications and new private players in the sector. We use data both from undergraduate and graduate courses in Brazil and compare it to stylized facts in the space sector, such as its geographical clustering and strong connection to government institutions. Most of the graduates come from very few institutions, with a strong background in engineering. We contributed to the literature by filling the existing gap of documenting the development of the field of space-related education, and framing its development as part of larger context, be it in the space sector or in the education system development of Brazil. This is important, especially in light of the emergency of new opportunities in the sector, that are much more private-sector oriented and rely on a globalized and skilled workforce. That calls for an integration of educational, innovation and industrial policies that would provide both human capital and private sector support for the country to be able to meet these new challenges and catch up in a very technology-intensive sector.