Beyond Earth Institute: How Space Policy Is Shaping the Future of Human Spaceflight

Susan Wise: Hi, and welcome to Stars Launch Pod: Space Technology and Research Sciences, brought to you by StarSciences.org, where we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. I’m your host, Susan Wise, and it’s an honor to have with us today Steve Wolfe, president and co-founder of Beyond Earth. Steve, welcome to the show.

Steve Wolfe: Glad to be here. Thanks, Susan.

Susan Wise: I want to know a little bit more about Beyond Earth and what you do at the Beyond Earth Institute.

Steve Wolfe: Sure. People who know us say “Beyond Earth.” The full name is the Beyond Earth Institute. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that was established about five years ago. We recognized at the time that there really wasn’t any organization looking at human spaceflight and human habitation in an extremely professional way from a policy standpoint—trying to push and advance the policies and regimes that will support human spaceflight in the near term.

That includes commercial space stations, returning to the Moon with the Artemis program, establishing permanent bases—both government and private—and eventually realizing the vision that one day humans will have the opportunity to live and work in space at a very large scale. Ultimately, that leads to space colonization and all of that science-fiction dream that so many of us, and so many in the space industry, have grown up believing in and wanting to make a reality.

So we focus on the policy side of how to make that possible.

Susan Wise: Mm-hmm.

Steve Wolfe: There’s the technology side and the financing side—how do you pay for it? How do you do it? But having strong government support for this activity is equally as important as the money or the technology.

Susan Wise: Absolutely. It’s part of the foundation. It has to be there for us to proceed.

Steve Wolfe: Exactly.

Susan Wise: Steven, tell us more about what you’re currently working on in the space industry. What’s going on right now?

Steve Wolfe: Let me share a bit about the genesis of the Beyond Earth Institute. For the last five years, we’ve been engaged in a range of activities that help propel and develop policy recommendations that we share with and communicate to Capitol Hill, NASA, the administration, and the White House.

We’re not lobbyists, so we don’t get into the details of drafting actual laws to change them. But we do this through convening. We have a very robust webinar series where we bring together industry players—much like yourself—to discuss a range of topics.

Specifically, coming up next week is our annual Beyond Earth Symposium. We’ll gather over 200 people, primarily from the policy community in Washington, as well as academia, industry, government agencies, and international participants.

So what are the issues we’re focused on that are really important? When you talk about human spaceflight, you’re talking about sectors within what we like to call the human spaceflight economy—a subset of the broader space economy that people often describe as a future trillion-dollar annual economy. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re building toward it.

Human spaceflight is an important part of that. For example, commercial space habitats or stations. Most of your listeners know that the ISS—the International Space Station—is about to be retired. It will likely be decommissioned and allowed to fall safely into the ocean.

But we want the important work being done on the ISS to continue—and NASA does too. So they’re supporting the development of commercial space stations. Companies like Axiom, Vast, Voyager, and others are involved. These platforms will provide pressurized environments for government and private sector research, industrial activities, and eventually space manufacturing—producing goods such as biotech or pharmaceuticals in microgravity that cannot be made on Earth.

That research can then come back to Earth for our benefit.

Beyond low-Earth orbit, we look to the Moon. Artemis II is expected soon, and astronauts will circle the Moon and return. By around 2028, another mission will land astronauts on the surface again for the first time since the 1970s.

It’s an exciting time for human spaceflight. NASA also has plans to eventually send humans to Mars. But this is not just NASA’s game. NASA is laying the foundation, but they’re working with private partners. There’s strong private-sector interest in utilizing lunar resources—such as water ice at the poles or rare earth materials in the regolith—and developing business models around them.

People often ask what the “killer app” or main economic driver in space will be. More and more, people say it’s simply people. There’s a strong desire for humans to be in space—tourists, professionals, technicians, industrial specialists, and scientists alike.

We also need to maintain a long-term vision. Getting back to the Moon with a few astronauts is only the beginning of a future that could unfold over centuries, potentially leading to entirely new civilizations in space.

Susan Wise: I was wondering—this foundation, is it only for inside our country, or is it expanding worldwide?

Steve Wolfe: We’re very global in our orientation. We operate in the U.S., so many activities focus on U.S. policy, but we strongly engage internationally.

At our symposium, we’ll host international discussions, including speakers from Japan, India, and NASA, exploring global partnerships. Last year, we even had a representative from China. Our view is that we should compete with China peacefully and aggressively, while maintaining leadership in space.

Susan Wise: I have a question about your upcoming event. Will it be open to the public and the media?

Steve Wolfe: Yes, it’s open to the public. If you go to beyondearthsymposium.org, you’ll find the full agenda. We’ll have over 40 speakers from government and industry, including former NASA leaders, executives from major aerospace companies, and policymakers.

Topics will include lunar governance and long-term strategies—because it’s not just about planting flags. It’s about sustainable presence and long-term development.

Susan Wise: Once the event is over, I’d love to talk to you again and hear the key takeaways.

Steve Wolfe: I’d be happy to come back and do that.

Susan Wise: Before we wrap up, do you have any advice for our listeners?

Steve Wolfe: Many people in the space sector are driven by childhood inspiration—watching shuttle launches or Moon landings. I encourage people not to get too caught up in day-to-day work. Take time to reconnect with that original motivation. It will sustain you and help guide your next steps.

Susan Wise: And even if someone didn’t have that early inspiration, space touches many fields—horticulture, food production, skincare, art, marketing—so many areas people don’t realize.

Steve Wolfe: Absolutely. There’s a saying: space is just another place. Everything we do on Earth, we’ll eventually do in space. Almost any profession can integrate with the space sector.

Susan Wise: Before we wrap up, do you have a passion project you’d like to share?

Steve Wolfe: Yes. I wrote a book called The Obligation. It explores the philosophical question of why humans are drawn to space. My core message is that humanity may have emerged, in part, to expand life beyond Earth—to carry life outward into the universe.

Susan Wise: I look forward to reading it.

Steve Wolfe: I hope you will.

Susan Wise: Steve Wolfe, thank you so much for joining us today. If we’d like more information about the conference, where can we go?

Steve Wolfe: You can visit beyondearthsymposium.org or simply search for the Beyond Earth Institute online.

Susan Wise: Thank you again for sharing your journey.

Steve Wolfe: Thank you, Susan.

Susan Wise: Be sure to join us where we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and subscribe. Until next time—keep looking up.