The space-grant colleges are institutions that are members of a network of 52 consortia formed for the purpose of outer space-related research. Each consortium is based in one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, and each consists of multiple independent space-grant institutions, with one of the institutions acting as the lead.
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The U.S. Congress established the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program in 1988. NASA administers the program, and first took that role in 1989.
Similar programs include land-grant colleges (instituted in 1862), sea-grant colleges (instituted in 1966), and sun-grant colleges (instituted in 2003). Unlike in the land-grant program, no economic rights to outer space have been granted in the space-grant program, only money.
Objectives
The program claims the following objectives:
Participating institutions
As of 2002, there are over 850 participating institutions.
References
National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA