The production of aerogel was first described by Kistler in 1931. His method was very complicated and time consuming. Only small amounts of aerogel could be produced which severely limited possible uses of the novel material (Burchell, 2006).

Interest in aerogel was renewed in the 1960’s when a French research group was investigating the use of aerogel as a storage medium for rocket fuel (Hrubesh, 1990). The research efforts led to a new and much less time-consuming production method. In the 1970’s larger quantities of aerogel were used to replace “gases or liquids for generating Cerenkov [radiation]” (Hrubesh, 1990).

In the 1980’s, extensive research on the mechanical properties, the microstructure and the fractal nature of aerogel was conducted by French researchers. It was also in this time that aerogel production became increasingly commercialized (Hrubesh, 1990).

In the 1990’s, NASA showed interest in using aerogels for several applications in space. Most notably, NASA used aerogel in 1999 to catch interstellar comet dust (Brownlee, 2003).