The default advice for breaking into the space industry is: get an aerospace engineering degree. That advice is mostly wrong. Or at least, it's wrong for most of the roles that are actually open right now.
I pulled the exact degree language from every active space job posting in the catalog. The result: 5% of SpaceX's 1,829 active postings specifically require aerospace engineering. Blue Origin is at 26%. Rocket Lab is at 19%. What most companies actually want is quantitative rigor, a technical degree in any field, and either specific skills or "equivalent experience."
Below is what the data says, and how to use it if you're a software engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, or self-taught engineer trying to get in.
What the data actually shows
For companies with at least 30 active postings, I searched their job requirements text for specific degree language. Here's what each company most often asks for:
| Company | Total | Aero-specific | Equivalent experience OK | CS-friendly | ME/EE-friendly | Physics/Math |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpaceX | 1,829 | 5% | 7% | 24% | 19% | 25% |
| Blue Origin | 800 | 26% | 30% | 12% | 28% | 13% |
| Rocket Lab | 359 | 19% | 30% | 16% | 21% | 13% |
| Relativity Space | 322 | 13% | 15% | 9% | 23% | 12% |
| Anduril | 218 | 19% | 26% | 38% | 35% | 25% |
| True Anomaly | 181 | 37% | 26% | 22% | 35% | 10% |
| Sierra Space | 167 | 14% | 78% | 12% | 14% | 13% |
| Vast | 152 | 25% | 19% | 7% | 37% | 9% |
| K2 Space | 151 | 9% | 15% | 15% | 28% | 24% |
| Voyager Technologies | 87 | 14% | 46% | 14% | 29% | 16% |
| Astranis | 86 | 8% | 44% | 23% | 29% | 27% |
| Planet Labs | 84 | 8% | 11% | 100% | 11% | 0% |
| Spire Global | 52 | 12% | 25% | 46% | 12% | 21% |
| Muon Space | 46 | 9% | 48% | 43% | 26% | 9% |
| Slingshot Aerospace | 35 | 23% | 31% | 37% | 17% | 26% |
Three things this data actually says
SpaceX is the most degree-agnostic top-tier space employer. Only 5% of their 1,829 postings specifically ask for aerospace engineering. What they actually want, more often: computer science (24%), physics or math (25%), or mechanical/electrical engineering (19%). SpaceX's real filter is "quantitative rigor plus specific skills." The engineering discipline you studied matters much less than what you can actually do.
Sierra Space is unusually open to equivalent experience. 78% of their postings say "or equivalent experience" or similar phrasing. That's by far the highest rate in the catalog. If you have real engineering experience without a matching degree, Sierra is one of the most reachable serious space companies.
Planet Labs is basically a software company that happens to have satellites. 100% of their postings mention computer science. If you're a software engineer wanting to break into space, Planet is the most direct path.
The companies that actually do favor aerospace degrees
A few companies do lean heavily on aerospace-specific credentials:
- True Anomaly: 37% mention aerospace engineering specifically
- Inversion Space: 65% (their reentry work is genuinely physics-heavy)
- Stoke Space: 43% (launch vehicles need real propulsion background)
- Turion Space: 45%
- Kepler Communications: 35%
- ispace: 31%
- Axiom Space: 30% (working with NASA's astronaut program, more traditional expectations)
- Blue Origin: 26%
- Vast: 25%
If you don't have an aerospace degree, these are harder-but-not-impossible targets. Most of them still say "or equivalent experience" for a meaningful percentage of roles.
The path from software into space
If you're a software engineer, here's the practical order of what to target:
First tier (easiest entry):
- Planet Labs (100% CS-friendly, satellite data pipeline is fundamentally software)
- Spire Global (46% CS-mentioned, weather/maritime data business)
- Muon Space (43% CS-mentioned, software-forward small-sat platform)
- Slingshot Aerospace (37% CS-mentioned, SSA software)
- SpaceX for pure-software roles (Falcon flight software, Starship autonomy, ground systems)
Second tier (harder but reachable):
- Anduril's space division for autonomy/simulation roles (38% CS-mentioned)
- Astranis for satellite bus software (23% CS-mentioned)
- Loft Orbital for mission operations software (16% CS-mentioned)
- Muon Space for mission control (43% CS-mentioned)
What to actually study or build in your free time:
- Orbital mechanics fundamentals (the Curtis textbook is the standard)
- Simulation engineering: MuJoCo, Drake, Isaac Sim, or Basilisk (open-source)
- One "space software" side project: pick a satellite, model its orbit and telemetry decoding
- If you're serious about mission operations: learn the CCSDS protocols
The path from mechanical or electrical engineering into space
If you're an ME/EE without aerospace background, three approaches work:
Aim at hardware-heavy companies where ME/EE overlap is huge:
- Kepler Communications: 65% ME/EE-mentioned
- Inversion Space: 56% ME/EE
- Ursa Major: 42% ME/EE
- Turion Space: 41%
- Vast: 37%
- Anduril: 35%
- True Anomaly: 35%
At any of these, an EE or ME degree with the right project experience is basically equivalent to an aerospace degree for many roles.
Learn the specific space-hardware skills that transfer:
- Radiation-hardened electronics design
- Vibration and thermal-vac test procedures
- CubeSat-class hardware bring-up (buy an actual dev kit)
- PCB design for space applications
- Propulsion basics (chemical rocket thermodynamics is more thermodynamics than aerospace)
Target the "equivalent experience" companies:
- Sierra Space (78%), Astranis (44%), Muon Space (48%), BlackSky (42%), Voyager (46%), Kepler (41%). These companies genuinely mean it when they say "or equivalent."
The path from physics or math into space
Physics and math are among the most respected non-aerospace degrees in the space industry. Companies where physics/math shows up in a meaningful percentage:
- SpaceX: 25%
- Anduril: 25%
- Varda Space: 26%
- Astranis: 27%
- Slingshot: 26%
- K2 Space: 24%
- Spire Global: 21%
- Planet Labs / Muon / Kepler: 9-12% but the roles that mention it are usually senior
For physics undergrads, orbital mechanics, plasma physics, or hardware physics (semiconductors, RF) all translate directly. For math undergrads, controls theory, optimization, and estimation (Kalman filters, MPC) are the direct paths in.
The path from a non-technical background into space
If you don't have a STEM degree at all, be honest: the engineering side of space is not going to open up. What can:
- Program management at established companies (Anduril, SpaceX, Rocket Lab)
- Mission operations at satellite operators (Planet, Spire, Loft)
- Commercial/BD/sales at growth-stage companies
- Regulatory/legal work (spectrum licensing, ITAR compliance)
- Communications and marketing at space companies
None of those pay engineering rates. But they're real paths into the industry.
What actually matters more than the degree
Two things carry more weight than what you studied:
Specific technical projects. If you built a CubeSat that flew (even in a lab), designed a working propulsion test stand, or wrote flight software that ran on an actual satellite, you're ahead of 90% of aerospace-degree holders who did none of that. Space companies hire for what you've done.
Adjacent-domain excellence. Being genuinely great at software engineering, physics, or mechanical engineering matters more than being average-plus-aerospace. A distinguished CS grad who can code will be preferred by SpaceX over a middle-of-the-pack aerospace grad.
What to actually do next
Three concrete calls:
If you're a software engineer: apply to Planet Labs, Spire, Muon Space, and SpaceX for pure-software roles first. Don't waste time trying to convince True Anomaly you know propulsion. Play to your strengths.
If you're an ME/EE without aerospace experience: target the equivalent-experience-friendly companies (Sierra, Astranis, Muon, Voyager, Kepler). Build one CubeSat-class project and put it on your resume.
If you're a physicist or mathematician: the door is more open than you think. Frame your background around specific applied skills (controls, estimation, RF, plasma) rather than "I'm a generalist." SpaceX, Anduril, K2, Varda, Astranis, and Slingshot all hire heavily from physics and math.
Methodology
Data pulled from active space-niche job postings on MadeForSpace.io. For each posting I ran a text search across the requirements and full description fields for degree-specific language. Percentages reflect what fraction of a company's postings mention each degree type at all — not whether they exclusively require it.
Regex matches for "aerospace" specifically look for phrases like "aerospace engineering" or "degree in aerospace." Matches for "equivalent experience" look for phrases like "or equivalent experience" and "equivalent work experience." Neither count is a perfect indicator of what the company will actually accept, but the pattern across many postings is a stronger signal than any single one.
Browse the full catalog to see individual company postings. When you're deciding whether to apply somewhere, the specific posting is always the ground truth.