a series of novel ideas from which a "Space University" was exceptionally well received. The idea garnered the support of a number of important personalities in the space field, including Prof. U.R. Rao, president of the Indian Space Research Organization; Dr. Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 astronaut and former senator; Dr. Burton Edelson, Associate Administrator of NASA for Space, Science, and Applications; Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill from the Space Studies Institute; space pioneer Prof. Hermann Oberth; and Arthur C. Clarke, the visionary writer, along with many others. This initiative was further developed and presented to the Advances in the Astronautical Sciences (AAS) Meeting dedicated to Aerospace Century XXI in Boulder, Colorado in 1986. The following year, a three-day Founding Conference convened at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 10 to 12 April 1987. These dates were chosen to commemorate the flight of Yuri Gagarin (12 April 1961), the first human in space. The Founding Conference culminated in the formal creation of the International Space University, and established it as a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization in the state of Massachusetts, USA. The first ISU Summer Session Program (SSP) took place at MIT from 20 June to 20 August 1988 with the support of the major space agencies. A significant announcement in an article dating 5 July 1988, in the Christian Science Monitor introduced the four founders and their novel and exciting venture. In a ceremonial gesture, the first international participants in the summer session were led by the four founders in a walk across the Charles River from MIT in Cambridge to Boston. The artwork for the first brochure was made by Pat Rawlings and is still in use today. The original offices of the fledgling ISU were located in a Victorian townhouse overlooking bustling Kenmore Square in Boston. Following an international competition for a host city for the Central Campus, the ISU home base moved from Massachusetts to Illkirch-Graffenstaden in the Urban Community of Strasbourg, France, in 1994. ISU is now a non-profit association registered in Alsace (France), and is still registered in the US as a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization. The Governing Members of ISU are international organizations, industries, space agencies, academic institutions, and individual members. The French Ministry of Education formally recognized ISU as an institute of higher education in 2004 The International Space University has had permanent observer status with the United Nations Committee on the