List of astronauts educated at Stanford University

As of 2026, twenty-seven United States astronauts are graduates of Stanford University, one of the highest numbers among civilian research universities. Stanford is a private university in Stanford, California, founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford. The Stanford University School of Engineering established the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1957 and has produced a large number of influential aerospace engineers at NASA throughout the Space Age.^[1] The university's proximity to NASA Ames Research Center in nearby Mountain View, California, has fostered close ties between Stanford researchers and the space program.^[2]

The first alumnus to fly in space was Owen Garriott, who launched aboard Skylab 3 on July 28, 1973. As of 2026, the most recent alumnus to be selected as an astronaut is Marcos Berríos in 2021 as part of NASA Astronaut Group 23. Stanford alumni have been part of the Skylab program, the Space Shuttle program, and the ongoing ISS program. The twenty-seven astronauts hold thirty-five degrees from Stanford, including five bachelor's degrees, seventeen master's degrees, ten doctorates, and two medical degrees, making Stanford one of the most represented universities in NASA's astronaut corps.^[3][4]

Stanford alumni include the first American woman in space (Sally Ride), the first untethered spacewalk (Bruce McCandless II), the first African-American woman in space (Mae Jemison), the first Hispanic woman in space (Ellen Ochoa), the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle (Eileen Collins), the first sequencing of DNA in space (Kate Rubins), and the first Indigenous American woman in space (Nicole Mann).^{[5][circular reference]}

In addition to 27 astronauts, Stanford has produced 58 Nobel Prize laureates, 33 MacArthur Fellows, 29 Turing Award recipients, and 196 Olympic medalists.^[6][7]