Space Operations Education Research: Studying Undergraduate Experiences as Predictors of Early Career Performance for Military Space Operations Officers

Undergraduate students who go on to operate space systems, e.g., satellites, launch systems, and ground-based systems, come from a diverse set of demographics and undergraduate experiences. The United States Space Force (USSF), and United States Air Force (USAF) before them, like many professions, have a demonstrated interest in who enters their ranks, but have had limited research available to them to inform their recruiting, selection, training, and early career development policies and processes. This Profession-Based Education Research study, a term introduced here in contrast to Discipline-Based Education Research, focused on the military space operations profession. This study analyzed newly commissioned USAF and USSF space operations officers from 2018-2022 to baseline the relationship between undergraduate experiences and early career performance. The study’s conceptual framework was based on Becker’s (1993) Human Capital Theory (HCT), Collins’ (2019) Credentialism Theory, and Lent and Brown’s (1996) Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) by considering the applicable formal education, training, other qualifications, person inputs, environmental influences, and learning experiences elements as potential predictors of early career performance. Additionally, this study used engineering education’s pipelines, pathways, and ecosystems paradigm to illustrate the progression from undergraduate student into and through the early portion their space operations career (Lee, 2019). This non-experimental, retrospective, quantitative study analyzed proxy variables from multiple USAF- and USSF-provided databases to investigate relationships between undergraduate experiences and early career performance at initial space training (Johnson, 2001). Key results from the confirmatory and exploratory analysis included statistical significance from three readily available variables: GPA, officer aptitude, and race. Although statistically significant, they all had low practical or meaningful significance in their relationship to performance at initial space training, the first early career milestone for space operations officers. Noticeably absent from the list was the lack of significance from an officer’s undergraduate major, the primary factor used by the USAF and USSF for making career field selections during the study’s timeframe. This led to the principal implications for changes to officer selection criteria and initial space training curriculum. The study’s other conclusions and implications from its methodology focused on additional recommendations to shape evolving USSF guidance for space operations officer recruiting, selection, training, and professional development. They also inform future research opportunities for space operations, other military career fields, and other professions by outlining specific considerations for study design, data collection, analysis, and policy. Key recommendations included increasing rigor in initial space training; resolving gaps, accessibility issues, and lack of standardization in key data sets; and collecting other education experience and early career performance data. This Profession-Based Education Research should inspire USSF and other professions to identify and collect undergraduate and professional performance data to better understand the impact that higher education has after the graduation milestone, not just during educational activities.