NASA Calls On Students to Fix Aviation Maintenance

Space agency’s 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies competition focuses on maintenance solutions for passenger and cargo operations.

Jack Daleo

Friday, September 19, 2025 at 03:30 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

NASA calls on students to devise cutting-edge aviation maintenance solutions that could improve efficiency, safety, and cost. [Courtesy: United Airlines]

Key Takeaways:

NASA's 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies competition challenges U.S. college students to innovate in aviation maintenance for commercial passenger and cargo operations.
Teams are tasked with proposing solutions, incorporating technologies like automation, AI, and robotics, to improve maintenance efficiency, safety, or costs within the next decade.
Winning team members will be offered internships with NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and have access to $72,000 in prize money.

See a mistake? Contact us.

U.S. college students have the opportunity to score NASA internships by sharing ideas for aviation maintenance technologies.

The space agency on Friday announced the theme for its 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies competition—“RepAir: Advancing Aviation Maintenance” for commercial passenger and cargo operations. Teams of collegiate students are invited to submit proposals that incorporate automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technologies. Their objective is to devise a solution that could improve maintenance efficiency, safety, or costs and be implemented within the next decade.