WHAT WE BELIEVE
We believe every individual on Earth is a stakeholder in the development of the space domain, and that maximizing the benefits of space requires deliberate and thoughtful engagement from all stakeholders.
OUR APPROACH
We bring together leaders and influencers of the space domain across socioeconomic and political borders to enhance a deeper collective understanding. We defend and amplify the voice of stakeholders who have been marginalized in the development of the space domain. We engage with members of the public who have yet to see the value in their opportunity to participate in the Community in Space™.
The Caelus Foundation Mission
We envision a safe and prosperous future for all people and living things on Earth and in space. Our goal is to engage internationally, regionally, and locally; advocate for those who are not aware of the importance that the space domain has for them economically, socially, and diplomatically; and empower all who make decisions, whether individually or collectively, to make decisions that influence the development and use of the space domain. We will do this by bringing together the most forward-looking nations, the brightest technical minds, the leading businesses and financial institutions, the greatest unified global organizations, and – most importantly – the general public to develop Community in Space™. We believe that this pursuit is one of the most significant opportunities for today’s generations to influence and shape the future of our world and the vast reaches of space.
The Caelus Foundation was founded by the team that first envisioned and articulated Community in Space™. The journey to this vision began with an exploration into the rapidly increasing global efforts to commercialize space. The founding team concluded that, given the characteristics of the space economy and the vision for Community in Space, it was essential to share the resulting business-related insights in a way that anyone could understand. As we started the Caelus Foundation, we quickly determined that there was a global need to engage and advocate for dialogue between key leaders and nation states. Our organization was founded as a nonprofit with the mission to advocate for broad participation in the space domain and to engage and empower people around the world to build a space-centric community through their decisions and actions. We deliver our mission through activities within our core pillars of multi-stakeholder collaboration, transdisciplinary research, and public engagement. In pursuing our mission, we seek to engage in activities that are complementary to those of others and collaborate where possible.
Our Inspiration
Activity in space has been steadily rising, picking up momentum in the past few years. Today, space is a domain governed loosely by dated international treaties, motivated by scientific exploration and nation-state competition. However, it is also a globalized economy that reached $384 billion in 2017 according to the Space Foundation. Both historically and today, the primary players in space are nation-state defense and space agencies and the private contractors that support them. With growing demand from the public, the satellite and communications markets have matured. Recently, the space industry has attempted to open up to a broader set of players pursuing activities to explore and learn, tap into new resources, send tourists into orbit, and eventually establish human habitats on another major body such as the Moon or Mars. Such economic growth has unlimited potential — space could one day be a multi-trillion-dollar economy — and when it achieves this, it will impact the lives of people around the world more significantly than it does today.
Despite the opportunities in space beyond our currently established uses, barriers to participation have resulted in an ecosystem that is not readily accessible to many beyond the traditional players. This is one of the greatest challenges for space: the lack of participation by the broader population across the globe.
We believe that defining a globally aligned, jointly developed framework for how people will pursue and navigate the unknowns of space from the outset will help us avoid a repeat of exploration and colonization history. We believe this is necessary in order to make advances in space to benefit humanity. This is the essence of what we call Community in Space.
In 2017, our founding Board Chairman, Jose Ocasio-Christian, first introduced the concept of Community in Space. He embarked on a journey to make the case for a collective vision for space and to connect to a variety of stakeholders. This was an eye-opening, humbling, yet enriching experience. General audiences, government officials, business leaders, and global leaders in the space domain have come to understand that they are moving on separate trajectories and that a holistic, integrated approach is needed. Otherwise, the potential of the space domain to enrich communities and lives will continue to be constrained by the silos and barriers that keep stakeholders disconnected and that could breed conflict and confusion, hindering our future. This reality led to the founding of the Caelus Foundation in 2018, and since, our team has been working diligently on our mission.
Three core pillars define the way we deliver our mission:
