The Zed Factor Fellowship moves undergraduate students from historically excluded backgrounds into the United States aerospace industry. Each fellow is matched with a host aerospace company for a paid internship of at least ten weeks and paired with an industry mentor. The fellowship also brings fellows to a leadership summit and funds a community project they design themselves.
Host companies named on the site include The Aerospace Corporation, Relativity Space, Redwire, Loft Orbital, Orbit Fab, Starfish Space, CesiumAstro, Venturi Astrolab, VAST and The Planetary Society. All majors qualify, and placements cover non-technical roles as well as engineering ones.
The program ran a class every year from 2021 through 2025. The Class of 2025 is the newest class published on the site, and the apply page still carries that cycle’s dates — no 2026 cycle was ever posted.
Benefits & funding
- Paid internship of at least 10 weeks. The host company pays a living wage directly, so the rate varies with the company, the location and the role; the program publishes no figures.
- Relocation stipend.
- A stipend for a self-designed aerospace community service project, run after the internship. The application asks candidates to plan one around a $500 budget over three months.
- Travel covered to the fellowship leadership summit.
- One-to-one mentoring by an aerospace professional, plus a long-term network of fellows and alumni.
Eligibility
- Full-time undergraduate student with 30 or more completed college credits by the end of the year the application opens (the published 2025 cycle set the cut-off at the end of 2024). AP, IB, dual-enrollment and community-college credits count.
- Students at community colleges and at four-year universities are both eligible.
- All majors.
- From a historically excluded community or background, with a passion for aerospace, leadership potential, and technical or non-technical skills.
- Legally eligible to work in the United States: US citizens, US permanent residents, DACA recipients, and international students studying in the US who are authorized for optional practical training.
- Available for a minimum 10-week internship in the summer or fall of the fellowship year.
- No GPA cut-off and no letters of recommendation; review is holistic.
- Applicants who already held an aerospace fellowship may apply, with preference given to candidates not previously placed in an aerospace internship through a fellowship program.
- Export-control rules (ITAR) restrict some defense-related work to US citizens. The program states that it cannot guarantee a placement for a non-citizen, and that placement is rare for students not enrolled at a US institution.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.
Residence required
USA
Education required
Bachelor Enrolled
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Application process
- 1Wait for a cycle to open. The Class of 2025 application opened in October 2024 and closed on 2 January 2025 at 11:59 PM PST; nothing newer has been posted.
- 2Assemble the general information section, a resume or CV of two pages maximum that states the GPA, and an unofficial transcript.
- 3Write four essays of 200 words or less, submitted as a single PDF: the ideal first job after school, a person who inspired you, a community engagement project you would run with $500 over three months, and a personal aerospace experience with what the fellowship would let you do next.
- 4Prepare the two creative components: the Zed Box, an image, and the Zed Song, a music selection.
- 5Submit everything through the online application form in a single submission before the deadline.
- 6Selection runs in stages: semi-finalists, then finalists, then the class announcement, then matching with host companies.
Program timeline
2024-10
Class of 2025 application opens
Application deadline, 11:59 PM PST
Jan 2, 2025
Semi-finalists selected
2025-01 to 2025-02
Finalists selected
2025-02 to 2025-03
2025-04
Class of 2025 announced
Internships run, minimum 10 weeks
2025-05 to 2025-09
Community Leadership Summit
2025-07
Community engagement projects run
2025-05 to 2026-04
Fellows present their projects
2026-06
Next cycle
none published. The apply page and the blog both stop at the Class of 2025, and no Class of 2026 was ever announced.