From lunar mission research to next-generation aviation systems, 12 students from across North Carolina will spend summer 2026 tackling aerospace and scientific challenges through internships supported by North Carolina Space Grant.

This year’s interns will conduct research and technical projects at various NASA centers and industry partner Collier Aerospace in Raleigh. Their projects span aerospace engineering, flight systems, weather prediction, controlled environment agriculture, and more.

“Internships provide students with vital real world experiences to help prepare them for future careers in aerospace related industries,” says Jobi Cook, associate director of NC Space Grant and manager of the intern program.

NC Space Grant internships have helped to launch careers in STEM and aerospace for decades. Alumni include NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Christina Koch. Cardman recently led SpaceX Crew 11 and Koch, an NC State engineering graduate, recently returned from her Artemis II mission.

Four of this summer’s interns are veterans of NC Space Grant-funded fellowships. Harry Xu, a third year Ph.D candidate at Duke University, has been an NC Space Grant Graduate Research Fellow for the past two years and presented at the annual Space Symposium three times. This summer, Xu will take his experience in computational fluid dynamics to NASA’s Langley Research Center.

“I’ll be working with my mentor to add new features into FUN3D, a computational fluid dynamics code developed at NASA Langley,” said Xu. “The new features will build on and add to the existing boundary layer transition models that are currently available within FUN3D.”

FUN3D is primarily used for aerodynamic design and analysis of aircraft, spacecraft, and launch vehicles, including the development of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory.

Other interns, such as Raina Gandhi, will be continuing work on a specific project for the second year in a row. Gandhi is a rising senior at North Carolina State University double majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Psychology. During her 2025 summer internship, Gandhi worked at NASA Ames Research Center in California to model helicopter downwash, the powerful airflow created during takeoff and landing. This summer, she’ll be continuing this work as a Rotorcraft Aeromechanics Intern.

“I’ll be researching air taxis, also known as eVTOLs. Specifically, I’m looking at the powerful wind patterns that the rotors create when they spin, which helps us understand how to design these vehicles so they can take off and land safely in urban areas,” said Gandhi.

Follow these interns and their summer projects, on NC Space Grant Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn.

Meet the Summer 2026 Interns

Langley Research Center

Ames Research Center

Kennedy Space Center

Johnson Space Center

Collier Aerospace/Hyper X