In this paper, we report lessons learned from the organization of an international doctoral school open to researchers and practitioners, named SPACE (the name has been changed to keep anonymity), aiming at training the next generation of space software engineers. The school was organized around timely, key, and relevant topics in the space sector, following a detailed analysis of the domain. SPACE focused on three main themes: (i) Robotics for Space Applications, (ii) Digital Twins for Space Manufacturing and Satellites, and (iii) Artificial Intelligence for Aerospace. The three-week school featured 58 speakers (40% of them from industry), 153 registered participants (from 32 different countries), and 54 awarded scholarships. According to the evaluation results obtained through surveys taken by both speakers and participants, the feedback was very positive, and the training experience was well appreciated.

Findings from the evaluation and our organizational experience allowed us to derive several lessons learned that we present in this paper for the benefit of the software engineering community. Our results highlight the importance of maintaining the program’s focus on relevant topics identified by a detailed needs analysis, and the importance of setting clear objectives, which in turn helps to identify clearly the target participants. However, engaging speakers from both industry and academia, and opening the school to diverse profiles, including students, researchers, and practitioners, introduces organizational challenges, such as aligning teaching to different audiences and balancing theoretical and practical activities.