explore horizons challenge
The xFoundry pipeline
Find your challenge. Build your experience.
Gain real experience tackling challenges identified with NASA and industry partners. Our programs give each stage its own focus: defining problems, building solutions, raising capital, and launching ventures.
Through TEAMS, you’ll collaborate across Technology, Entrepreneurship, Arts & Athletics, Marketing, and Science, combining perspectives to see what others miss and build stronger solutions.
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How it works
The student path
The partner path
Competition
Horizons Challenge
Define the problem.
Duration: One semester
Work on a NASA or industry focus area and make the case for one challenge inside it. You're not proposing a solution, you're proving the problem is real. Win, and it becomes the next national Xperience competition.
Registration open: HORIZONSÂ CHALLENGEÂ IISummit
NEXPLORE
Pitch the problem.
April 2027 • Amazon HQ2, Arlington, VA
Finalists pitch live at xFoundry's two-day summit in Washington, DC, to 400-plus investors, scientists, and NASA experts, who give feedback and vote. The winning team earns $2,040 and accelerated entry into the Xperience built on their problem.
details LAUNCHING soon
Partnership
Industry Topic
Bring the problem.
Corporations, agencies, and prize organizations bring xFoundry a real technology gap. That gap becomes a multidisciplinary student competition, with partners setting the bar every solution must clear.
New students enter here
Competition
Xperience
Solve the problem.
Duration: 12–18 months
Teams from engineering, business, design, and science spend 12 to 18 months building an investment-grade MVP with Xpert mentors alongside. Students finish with roughly 1,500 documented hours, LinkedIn credentials, and some universities will also provide their student teams with experiential learning certificates. Up to four teams pitch the investor panel at the finals.
New students enter here
Investment
Xponential
Fund the launch.
Work with an independent fund consortium built to back xFoundry ventures, investing up to $2M through a SAFE. Founders keep their IP and launch as independent companies.
$2 Million
Maximum investment per venture