Internships for Students

Internships Overview

NASA Internships are educational hands-on opportunities that provide unique NASA-related research and operational experiences for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students as well as educators. These internships integrate participants with career professionals emphasizing mentor-directed, degree-related, real-time world task completion. During the internship participants engage in scientific or engineering research, development, and operations activities. In addition, there are non-technical internship opportunities to engage in professional activities which support NASA business and administrative processes. Through these internships, participants leverage NASA’s unique mission activities and mentorship to enhance and increase their professional capabilities and clarify their long-term career goals.

NASA Internships can be full or part-time, conducted at a NASA facility, contractor facility, or anywhere activities are ongoing to advance NASA’s missions. Mentors can be civil servants, contractors, or faculty conducting activities directly related to NASA’s unique assets and ongoing mission activities.

NASA internships occur within the following 4 sessions per year generally corresponding to the academic calendar: spring, summer, fall, and year-long (often following the academic year Aug.-May)

Internship Eligibility

NASA internships are available to high school through graduate level students attending full-time accredited programs appropriate to the NASA internship opportunity for which they receive an offer. U.S. citizenship is required for most internship opportunities. Select opportunities are also open to citizens from countries participating in the NASA International Internship (I^2) Program. Applicants must be enrolled full-time in a degree-granting course of study appropriate to NASA’s long-term professional workforce needs. College-level interns must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale or equivalent. While NASA Internships are available to students in a wide-variety of majors ranging from business to science and engineering, individual internship opportunities will target specific disciplines. Applicants have the opportunity to browse and selectively apply for specific internship opportunities once their application is complete.

Internship Sessions

NASA internships are available throughout the calendar year. The majority of opportunities are full-time and occur in three sessions which generally follow the academic calendar. Fall and spring internships are typically 16 weeks in length, while summer internships are a minimum of 10 weeks for collegiate applicants and 8 weeks for High School students or educators.

In addition to the 3 sessions described above, applicants may apply for “Year-Long” internship opportunities. This category represents opportunities that do not fall within the conventional summer, fall, or spring session timeframes. For example, a part-time internship opportunity beginning in late August and ending in May would be posted in this internship session. Also, a full-time internship beginning in January and ending in August would be posted in this session.

Fall Session opportunities (16 wks) begin in late August or early September and conclude in Mid-December.

Spring Session opportunities (16 wks) begin in mid-January and conclude in early May.

Summer Session opportunities (8-10 wks) begin in late May or early June and conclude in early August.

Year-Long Session opportunities (greater than 16 wks) do not correspond to the 3 standard sessions above.

Internship Locations

NASA Internships can take place at a NASA centers, contractor facility, or anywhere activities are ongoing to advance NASA’s missions. The specific location of each NASA internship opportunity is included in it’s description. Applicants have the opportunity to browse and selectively apply for individual opportunities once their application is complete. The majority of opportunities occur at the following NASA facilities:

Ames Research Center – Palo Alto, CA

Armstrong Flight Research Center Edwards AFB, CA

Glenn Research Center – Cleveland, OH

Goddard Institute for Space Studies – New York, NY

Goddard Space Flight Center – Greenbelt, MD

Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Pasadena, CA

Johnson Space Center – Houston, TX

Kennedy Space Center – Kennedy Space Center, FL

Langley Research Center – Hampton, VA

Marshall Space Flight Center – Huntsville, AL

NASA Headquarters – Washington D.C.

Stennis Space Center – Stennis Space Center, MS

Wallops Flight Facility – Wallops Island, VA

White Sands Test Facility – Las Cruces, NM

NASA Intern and Fellow Opportunities for International Students

For additional information specific to international opportunities, please go to https://intern.nasa.gov/non-us-opportunities/index.html.

International Programs:

(1) NASA International Internship Program (NASA I^2)

(2) International Space University (ISU)

When to Apply

Applications must be submitted for each specific session in order to be eligible for any internship opportunities posted for those sessions. Applications can only be revised and submitted during the timeframe that applications are being accepted for a specific session. The application acceptance timeframes are as follows:

Fall internship applications are accepted: 03/02/2017 – 5/31/2017

Spring internship applications are accepted: 06/02/2016 – 10/17/2016

Summer internship applications are accepted: 11/01/2016 – 03/01/2017

Year-long internship applications are accepted at any time.

To View ALL Available Internship Opportunities

1. Go to https://intern.nasa.gov. In the OSSI Student Opportunities and Recruitment Tools container.

1. Select the ‘Student Assistance’ Tab

2. Select the ‘Log-In’ tab

3. Register as a student and apply for internships .

Official Link: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/index.cfm%3FsolarAction%3Dview%26subAction%3Dcontent%26contentCode%3DHOME_PAGE_INTERNSHIPS