The Department of Space Studies is a two time recipient of the UND Foundation’s McDermott award for departmental excellence in teaching. A Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor is among the faculty. In 2006 Dr. Mike Gaffey received both the Leonard Medal from the Meteoritical Society and the G. K. Gilbert Award from the Planetary Science division of the Geological Society of America.

Dr. James G. Casler. P.E. Associate Professor Business and Management Space Economics and Commerce Quality Engineering Space and Planetary Industrial operations Risk Management in Space Enterprises	Ron Fevig Assistant Professor Director, Graduate Studies Small Spacecraft Development Orbital Mechanics Space Mission Design High-Altitude Balloon and Sounding Rocket Payload Development Space Communications and Ground Station Operations	Mike Gaffey Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor Planetary Geology Asteroids and Meteorites Telescopic Observations / Spectroscopy Early History of the Solar System Space Resources Origin of Life on Earth Dinosaurs, Impacts and Extinctions
Paul Hardersen Associate Professor Main-belt asteroids, near-infrared spectroscopy Asteroids, broadband photometry Early solar system heating processes The Sun, intrinsic sunspot rotations The Sun, X-ray bright points Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education	Pablo de León Senior Research Associate Human Space Flight Space Suit Design Spacecraft Design EVA Systems History of the Space Age Experimental Rocketry History of Latin American Space programs Commercial Space Flight	Vadim Rygalov Associate Professor Ecological Biophysics Closed Ecological Systems and Human Subjects Environmental Design & Control Low Pressure Plant Physiology and Ecology Human Performance in Extreme Environments
Santhosh Seelan Professor, Chair Director ND Space Grant and ND-NASA EPSCoR Global Change Remote Sensing applications to: Environmental Change Detection Precision Farming	David Whalen Associate Professor Space History Space Policy Space Business and Economics Satellite Communications Applications Satellites Launch Vehicles & Launch Services Military Space vOrbital Mechanics