Space Medicine

Curriculum

The Space Medicine fellowship is designed to help fellows become experts, leaders and teachers in the field of Space Medicine.

• The fellowship uses a flexible elective and rotation system. Specific rotations can overlap, and clinical rotations can be structured longitudinally (for example, completing clinical rotations on most Thursdays throughout the year rather than in two-week blocks). This allows for greater schedule flexibility — particularly around launch schedules — and a more longitudinal learning experience. 
• Additionally, given their specific expertise in Bioastronautics, we have partnered with University of Colorado Boulder to provide Engineering courses to our fellows. These are remote courses and also allow for significantly more flexibility compared to in person courses. You are now able to take courses at CU Boulder, UCLA Samueli, or Caltech/JPL (note that the Caltech/JPL courses are in person and seasonal). 

Here is a draft schedule for a typical 2 year long Space Medicine fellowship:

Specific goals of the fellowship include

• Understand physiologic changes with relation to short-term and long-term human spaceflight and become familiar with the presentation of specific space-related pathologies, their diagnosis, treatment, and management.
• Gain an understanding of the various systems that operate to maintain crew health and the role and duties of a flight surgeon in crewed spaceflight.
• Gain a historical perspective of clinical conditions that have occurred during spaceflight, their causes and management, and ultimate outcomes.
• Understand and contribute to the design of flight space equipment, biomedical equipment, and crewed vehicles to promote flight safety.
• Understand the basic principles and thought processes of aerospace engineering, biomechanical engineering, and materials sciences.
• Understand both non-medical (engineering) and medical mishaps in human spaceflight and their effects on astronaut health.
• Become proficient in the designing, integration, and implementation of medical systems protocols for space exploration.
• Provide medical support during all stages of human spaceflight including pre-flight, launch, orbital flight, and recovery operations.
• Gain expertise, either through simulated or real spaceflight events, in managing medical contingencies.
• Become proficient in all aspects of leading private medical conferences.
• Support research including health data collection before, during, and after human spaceflight missions.
• Become familiar with the potential challenges of practicing medicine in austere environments including on the martian surface through didactic discussions and analog missions.
• Through clinical training, become proficient in the fundamental principles and procedural skills needed to perform surgical (both general and orthopedic), interventional, ophthalmological, and dental evaluations and procedures and adapt this knowledge base for their applications in Space.
   

Experience

• Training with SpaceX, VAST, and our other space partners, including in medical operations, research, engineering implementation, and formal flight surgeon training.
• Additional aerospace medical training opportunities including with aerospace industry affiliates in the military and NASA.
• A formalized didactic curriculum with leaders in the field of Space Medicine.
• Graduate level engineering and bioastronautics training with the University of Colorado Boulder, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, and/or Caltech/JPL focusing on aerospace and biomedical engineering.
• Austere medical environment training including with Mars surface analogs and arctic environments.
• Research opportunities with NASA, Caltech/JPL, SpaceX, UCLA Health, and other partnering institutions.
• Specialized multi-institutional Toxicology, Hyperbarics/Hypobarics, and Ultrasound rotations with focus on space-related applications.
• Clinical Skills training and rotations with UCLA Health institutions including the Departments of General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Interventional Radiology, Ophthalmology, and Dentistry.
• Work with US Space Command on projects of interest to the Department of Defense and US Space Force.

Professional Development

• Individual opportunities with space medicine, engineering, and other associated faculty.
• Regular meetings with the fellowship director including to discuss professional development.
• Opportunities with space medicine leaders to learn from and explore career options.

Clinical

• Clinical responsibilities include 4 clinical shifts per month as an attending physician in the ED in UCLA affiliated hospitals including Ronald Reagan, Olive View, Harbor, Westwood VA, Santa Monica, or other local emergency departments.

All rotations and their dates or structure are subject to availability and program director discretion.

Stipends & Benefits

• UCLA employee with salary and benefits
• $2,000 CME allowance
• $2,000 computer allowance
• Four weeks of vacation
• Travel and lodging for rotations outside Los Angeles

Request More Information

If you’d like to inquire about the UCLA Space Medicine Fellowship, please email spacemed@mednet.ucla.edu. Given the high volume of interest the program receives, we may not have the bandwidth to reply to every email individually, but every message is read.

Apply

We have selected candidates for our fellowship slots through Academic Year 2026. 

For the fellowship class starting in Academic Year 2027, interested applicants should send these application materials to spacemed@mednet.ucla.edu by November 15, 2026. Decisions will be announced in mid-December 2026. 

There will be two rounds of interviews in late November and early December 2026 — the first with UCLA faculty and the second with the SpaceX Medical Team. Interviews are granted to qualified applicants by invitation. 

For selected candidates, there may be an option to complete one year of the fellowship remotely and one year on-site in Los Angeles. This flexibility is considered on a case-by-case basis and is finalized with the program director. 

Applicant Requirements

• Graduation from a 4-year ACGME accredited Emergency Medicine Residency training program (or equivalent, such as a 3-year ACGME program with 1-year spent in practice or another fellowship)
• Eligible to obtain a California Medical License 
• As of Academic Year 2026, the fellowship is also open to graduates of a variety of non-EM specialties. 

Faculty and Fellows

Fellowship Director

Haig Aintablian, MD

Current Fellow

Nicolas Nelson, MD, 2026–2028 

Fellowship Alumni

Haig Aintablian, MD, 2022–2023

Brandon T., MD, 2023–2025 

Peter Alexandrov, MD, 2024–2026 

Michael Boyle, MD, 2025–2027 

Faculty

Benjamin Easter, MD 

Dana Levin, MD 

Amran Asadi, MD 

Brandon T., MD 

Kenny Chao, MD 

Karthik Ramaswamy, MD