, thirty United States astronauts have graduated from the University of California (UC) system, including 10 from UC Berkeley, 10 from UCLA, 4 from UC San Diego, 3 from UC Santa Barbara, 2 from UC Davis, 1 from UC Irvine, and 1 from UC Santa Cruz.
The first alumnus to fly as an astronaut was Walt Cunningham (UCLA), selected in 1963 in NASA Astronaut Group 3 to fly as the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 7, the first Apollo Program mission. , the most recent alumna to be selected as an astronaut was Deniz Burnham (UC San Diego), of the class of 2021. One alumnus was part of the Apollo program, three were part of Soyuz, and twenty were part of the Space Shuttle program. In total, 31 people educated at the University of California campuses have flown to space, either for NASA or through private space companies.
The UC system is the flagship land-grant public university system in the U.S. state of California. The first campus was established at Berkeley in 1868, followed by Los Angeles in 1919 and major expansion in the 1960s to San Diego, Irvine, and Santa Cruz. The system includes 9 undergraduate campuses in total, including at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.
In addition to the 30 astronauts who are alumni of the University of California, the university system has produced 670 Olympic medalists, 254 members of the National Academy of Sciences, and 75 Nobel Prize laureates.
Alumni of the University of California, Berkeley include 10 NASA astronauts and 1 private astronaut.
Two NASA astronauts are alumni of the University of California, Davis.
One astronaut is affiliated with the University of California, Irvine.
Alumni of UCLA include 10 astronauts.
Four astronauts are alumnae of the University of California, San Diego. It is the only university whose astronauts are all women.
Three astronauts are alumni of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
One astronaut is an alumna of the University of California, Santa Cruz.