The university offers a one or two-year Master in Space Studies (MSS) in Strasbourg and shorter professional development programs across the world.

[1] The International Space University Central Campus and global headquarters are located in Illkirch-Graffenstaden which is a suburb of Strasbourg in northeastern France.

ISU was founded on the "3-Is" philosophy providing an Interdisciplinary, Intercultural, and International environment for educating and training space professionals and post-graduate students.

She was preceded by Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin,[6] who succeeded then–European Space Agency Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain and acclaimed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, in 2004.

[10] 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 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.

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.

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.

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