The Space Research Institute is being shut down as the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) reorganizes its institutes.
In order to cut down on costs, the OVPR is evaluating its research centers and will either place them under the care of a college that would sponsor the organization or eliminate them altogether.
Although it's been lucrative for the University in the past, the Space Research Institute has stumbled through the pitfalls of the economy and is losing money.
John Mason Jr., vice president for research, was also concerned the institute had become more valuable to scientific organizations outside Auburn.
One of the many projects the institute worked on for organizations outside the University is a satellite it tested for NASA.
"They're building a satellite called solar probe plus, and it's going to be the closest satellite to ever orbit the sun," said Steve Best, former research engineer at the institute. "To keep the satellite from burning up, they have to build heat shield materials they needed tested."
NASA requested help from many space research institutes on the project, including Oakridge National Laboratory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the NASA facilities in Goddard and the space institute at Johns Hopkins, but Best said the Space Research Institute was the only one able to do it.
"I met with the guys and said, 'I think we can do it,' and we did," Best said. "We do some unique stuff, and when (NASA) found out we were closing, they were kind of upset."
Best said some of the employees from the institute would be creating a new business in Notasulga, so space research organizations outside the University can still go to them for help.
"I told them to wait a little bit and we may have that capability again off site," Best said. "They've already told us that if we can make it work off campus, they have more work they want us to do."
Brian Wells, former senior research associate at the institute, said the new business was started from personal money some of the institute's employees had saved and is projected to open in December.
"We used to be on the outskirts of campus," Wells said. "As the University has grown, we are no longer on the edge of campus, but at its core, so they're trying to convert this space for academic research. There just wasn't a compelling reason as to why we needed to be on campus."
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