The National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program (NSGCFP) was established by Act of Congress in 1987 as a new NASA program. The National Space Grant (NSG) Act was patterned after the successful Land Grant and Sea Grant programs and sought to establish groupings of universities to promote the development of the space sciences and aerospace research, education and public awareness. Congress found that "development of space frontiers requires a broad commitment and partnerships between federal government, states, private industry and universities concerned with the utilization of Space." In introducing the NSG Act, Senator Bentsen (D-TX) initiated a bold, new commitment to maintaining America's lead in aeronautics, aerospace technology and research well into the foreseeable future. This new program, while based at and involving major participation by the nations colleges and universities, was to transcend the campus to involve all levels of government, business and industry.

Office space for the Consortium was established at LSU in the Department of Physics and Astronomy during the summer of 1991, and Ms. Amy Eads was hired as a civil service staff assistant. A program manager, Ms. Karen Johnson, PE, was added to the staff in 1995. The office provides working space for the directors and the assistant and is home to the "Aerospace Opportunities Library." The contact information for LaSPACE is as follows:

• John P. Wefel, Director
• Diola Bagayoko, Associate Director
• T. Gregory Guzik, Assistant Director
• Amy Eads, Assistant
• Doug Granger, Webmaster

The First Phase
The first NASA Request for Proposals (RFP) for the NSG Program was restricted to universities which were already established leaders in NASA related research and development and had more than $2M/year in NASA grants and contracts. From this RFP, programs in 21 states were selected for funding during this first phase of the NSG program.

The Second Phase
In order to expand the program into a national network, NASA issued a second RFP for State Consortia to join the original 21 programs. This time there was no criteria pertaining to existing NASA grants and contracts, but only one proposal per state was allowed. Proposals could be for either program grants or capability enhancement grants, the latter designed for EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) states who wanted to improve their R & D involvement in aerospace related fields.

Every college and university in Louisiana was invited to an organizational meeting at LSU in 1990, and it was decided to submit a proposal for a Capability Enhancement grant. Each campus submitting a letter of intent to NASA would be included in the statewide consortium. A committee was established to coordinate with LaSER (Louisiana Stimulus for Excellence in Research), the Louisiana EPSCoR Committee, and the Board of Regents to investigate obtaining matching funds through the LEQSF (Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund) and to develop material for a proposal. This committee became the proposal writing group and, armed with a commitment of $100K per year in LEQSF matching funds, submitted a Phase II Capability Enhancement State Consortium proposal to NASA in the fall of 1990. Following peer and panel reviews at NASA, Louisiana's proposal was selected for funding under the second phase of the NSG program. The NASA Training Grant was awarded in Spring, 1991 to support the NSGCFP.

In the second phase, NASA selected fourteen states for program grants and twelve states for capability enhancement grants. Five additional state capability enhancement grants were later awarded, to complete the national network of 52 consortia with programs established in Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and all fifty states.

As required by the NASA RFP, The Louisiana Space Consortium (LaSPACE) is centered around a lead university (LSU) that acts as the contracting fiscal agent for the Consortium. The Consortium is directed jointly by LSU (Dr. Wefel) and SU (Dr. Bagayoko). The initial NASA grant of $150K is matched by $100K from the LEQSF through the Board of Regents and by contributions from LSU and SU as the coordinating institutions. In addition, all LaSPACE campuses agreed to waive all indirect charges on LaSPACE funding coming to or through their campus. The LaSPACE group has since received a NASA funding augmentation of $55K per year.

• Establish a National network of universities with interests and capabilities in aeronautics, astronautics and other fields, related to the study of space.


• Encourage cooperative programs among universities, the aerospace industry, and federal, state and local governments.


• Promote interdisciplinary training, research and public-service programs related to aerospace.


• Recruit and train professionals - - especially women and underrepresented minorities - - for careers in aerospace science, technology and allied fields.


• Develop a strong science, math, and technology educational base from elementary through university levels.