Pathways
Legacy
NASA ORBIT builds on the strong foundations of previous MUREP student challenges which empowered hundreds of students to design hardware for space missions and transform NASA intellectual property into commercial concepts. NASA ORBIT takes the strengths of those programs and elevates them into a unified challenge designed for the next era of innovation.
Future
NASA ORBIT represents a bold step forward in how students engage with NASA’s mission and technology pipeline. Designed as a multi-phase, interdisciplinary challenge, ORBIT invites students to develop ideas that matter – concepts that can advance human exploration, strengthen life on Earth, or spark new ventures. Through mentorship, project milestones, real-world problem solving, and a post-challenge accelerator, the program prepares participants not only to succeed in the challenge, but to thrive as part of the future STEM and innovation workforce. ORBIT is more than a challenge, it is a launchpad for the next generation of creators, researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
ORBIT Pathways
The NASA ORBIT Challenge offers two pathways for teams to choose from, each aligned with a different dimension of NASA’s mission:
Track 1: ORBIT Earth
Teams leverage NASA-owned patents or software to propose new or improved products or services that address terrestrial needs and offer a clear path to real-world impact.
Track 2: ORBIT Space
Teams design mission-aligned concepts that support current or future NASA exploration goals, grounded in technical feasibility and relevance to NASA’s strategic gaps.
In addition, teams may pursue an “Optional Integration Bonus,” blending the strengths of both tracks. This allows participants to demonstrate how a solution can serve Earth and space simultaneously, showing the interdisciplinary thinking that drives NASA’s most groundbreaking innovations.