College of Astronautics at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. [Photo/en.nuaa.edu.cn]
Established in 2006, the College of Astronautics at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) comprises the Department of Aerospace Systems Engineering, the Department of Space Optoelectronic Information, the Department of Aerospace Control Engineering, and a teaching and research laboratory.
The college offers three undergraduate programs: Aerospace Engineering, Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering, and Aircraft Control and Information Engineering. Among them, Aerospace Engineering and Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering are recognized as national first-class undergraduate program construction sites. The Flight Vehicle Control and Information Engineering is listed as a Jiangsu provincial first-class major construction site.
The college holds doctoral degree-granting rights in Aerospace Science and Technology, Optical Engineering, and Control Science and Engineering at the graduate level. It also offers professional postgraduate programs in Electronic Information and Mechanical Engineering.
The college specializes in advanced research domains, including space science and on-orbit servicing, aerospace photoelectric sensing, large-scale modeling, and the intelligent networking and coordination of flight vehicles. The college has independently developed the micro-satellite Tianxun 1 (TX 1) and the beacon payload for China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe. Moreover, the college has made significant contributions to major national space programs, including China's crewed spaceflight, Chang'e lunar exploration, Beidou Navigation Satellite System, Tianwen Mars exploration, and the lunar landing program.
The college has built long-standing partnerships with leading universities and research institutes worldwide. These partnerships include institutions such as Samara National Research University in Russia, National Aviation University in Ukraine, Rice University in the USA, Technical University of Munich in Germany, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and Macau University of Science and Technology.
In 2022, the college launched the first cohort of its China-Russia joint aerospace engineering program in collaboration with Samara National Research University.
The college currently employs a total of 125 staff members. This figure includes 94 full-time faculty members, 11 technical and support staff, and 8 postdoctoral researchers and full-time research fellows. Within the faculty, there are 28 professors and research fellows, as well as 55 associate professors and associate research fellows.
The college's faculty has led more than 200 national-level research projects and 300 provincial- and ministerial-level projects. They have also published over 1,600 academic papers and nearly 500 authorized patents.
The college has received numerous prestigious awards, including three Second Prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, two First Prizes of the Ministry of Education's Technical Invention Award, and provincial science and technology progress awards.
The College of Astronautics has trained and graduated more than 4,000 students across undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels, many of whom have made major contributions to China's aerospace and defense sectors.
