The California Institute of Technology has announced a $7.8 million gift from investor and philanthropist Foster Stanback and his wife, Coco, to advance innovation in space exploration.

The gift to the school's Division of Engineering and Applied Science includes $3 million for a space innovation fund that will support, among other projects, an electrically powered aircraft that can be recharged in flight by energy beamed from space; $3 million for an endowment to support graduate fellowships at the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at Caltech (GALCIT) and other departments; and $1.8 million for a new outreach program that, in partnership with a network of community colleges, will aim to inspire disadvantaged youth to pursue careers in aerospace engineering.

Over the past decade, the Stanbacks have given more than $24 million to Caltech. Foster Stanback likened their most recent gift to investing in ocean-going sailing ships centuries ago. "When Portugal made those investments and Vasco de Gama rounded the coast of Africa with that first load of pepper from India, the world changed," said Stanback. "There are opportunities waiting out there that are going to advance civilization. We've got to do the hard work, the science, in order to make that possible. It's not going to be as easy as building ships out of wood, but Caltech has the people who can do this, working with nanotechnology and advanced materials science, new propulsion systems, atomic energy, and more."