The Center has a more than 10-year heritage of education programs that effectively bridge across STEM content. These national programs were developed and piloted by the Laboratory for Astrophysics at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum from 1990-1996. The programs were transferred to the Space Science Education and Research department at Challenger Center for Space Science Education in 1996 where they were broadened into national initiatives.

On June 1, 2005 the department’s staff and programs formally separated from Challenger Center to form USRA’s new National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. The Center Director is Dr. Jeff Goldstein.