The history of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST traces back to 1979 when the aeronautics degree was established as a graduate-only program at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science in order to meet the national need for highly trained aeronautical and space engineers. In 1984, the department was integrated as a division of the Department of Mechanical Engineering offering specialized research and education programs in aerospace engineering In 1991, when KAIST was relocated to merge with the Korea Institute of Technology in Daejeon, the Department became an independent unit that offers both undergraduate and graduate courses. In 1999, the Department was reunited with the Department of Mechanical Engineering in order to participate in the Brain Korea 21 Project, a large-scale government-initiated funding program for research universities. As of 2006, the Department has participated in Phase II of BK21 with the Department of Mechanical Engineering In 2007, the aerospace program became the Department of Aerospace Engineering under the School of Mechanical, Aerospace & Systems Engineering.