Steven Wolfe
Steven Wolfe is President and Cofounder of the Beyond Earth Institute and Deputy Executive Director of the Global Spaceport Alliance. He is also a Partner and Cofounder of CWSP International, an Advisor to the Hypernova Fund, and the author of The Obligation: A Journey to Discover Human Purpose on Earth and in the Cosmos.
Steve is widely recognized as the principal drafter of the Space Settlement Act of 1988, the foundational U.S. legislation establishing human settlement of the space frontier as a long-range national objective and codifying space settlement responsibilities for NASA.
As President and Cofounder of the Beyond Earth Institute since June 2020, Steve leads a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan policy think tank whose mission is to establish and sustain a policy and legal framework that enables economically vibrant communities beyond Earth. Under his leadership, the Institute conducts primary and secondary research, publishes recommendations on legal, regulatory, and economic conditions for human migration into space, and convenes the annual Beyond Earth Symposium at the American University Washington College of Law — widely viewed as the foremost forum on policy challenges associated with expanding human presence throughout the solar system.
The 2026 Beyond Earth Symposium convened former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, former NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen, and other senior figures to wrestle with lunar strategy, commercial low Earth orbit destinations, and the policy infrastructure required for permanent off-world communities. Read Yes to a Moon Base; No to Cutting CLD and CLD Is Struggling. That’s Not a Reason to Walk Away.
Since January 2017, Steve has served as Deputy Executive Director of the Global Spaceport Alliance, the largest network of spaceports in the world and the voice of the global spaceport community. Established in 2015, the GSA represents spaceport operators, suppliers, and government and academic entities involved in the commercial space sector. In June 2024, the GSA went to Capitol Hill for the first time to inform Members of Congress and their staff about the growing importance of spaceports to the global economy, advocating for a national spaceport policy and adoption of the Commercial Spaceflight Operations Act.
Steve is a Partner and Cofounder of CWSP International, an international consulting firm advising individuals, companies, and governments on access to the commercial space sector. He also serves as an Advisor to the Hypernova Fund, a hybrid venture firm backing early-stage startups across the U.S. and Europe building infrastructure, data systems, and frontier applications for the space economy. Since July 2018, he has served on the Board of GEN Space at the Global Entrepreneurship Network, the global initiative that catalyzes startups and scale-ups focused on entrepreneurial opportunities through low Earth orbit access. He additionally serves on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Space Philosophy, published by the Kepler Space Institute.
Steve is a frequent contributor to SpaceNews on space settlement policy. Read Space Settlement Act should guide Nelson’s NASA tenure,Achieving Bezos’ bold vision of space settlement requires bold policy direction, and A lunar base or a lunar economy?
He also writes for 2211 World on space philosophy and the cultural meaning of the new commercial space era. Read Rich Boys of Space Know Not What They Do and We Are Already Space Settlers – Let’s Admit It.
From 2014 through June 2020, Steve was Deputy Executive Director of SpaceCom, America’s Commercial Space Conference and Exposition, held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. He helped shape the program from its inception to reflect the emerging space economy, building cross-industry partnerships among NASA, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the aerospace, energy, medical, and advanced manufacturing sectors. From 2011 to 2014, he was Director of Marketing and Business Development at SunBlue Energy, a New York–based solar energy provider.
Steve’s earliest contribution to space policy remains his most consequential. From 1984 through 1989, he served as Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives to the late Congressman George E. Brown, Jr. (D-CA), a senior member of the House Committees on Agriculture and on Science, Space, and Technology. While on Capitol Hill, Steve served as Executive Director of the Congressional Space Caucus and drafted the Space Settlement Act of 1988, introduced by Brown as H.R. 4218 on March 22, 1988.
The Act declared human settlement of the space frontier a long-range national objective, defined the term “space settlement”, and required NASA to report to the President and Congress every two years on the technologies and policies needed for permanent human communities beyond Earth. Incorporated as Section 217 of the NASA Authorization Act (P.L. 100–685), the bill was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. Congressman Brown received the National Space Society Pioneer Award for this legislative achievement. Read Proposed Legislation Would Make Space Settlement a National Goal.
Earlier in his career, Steve held senior membership and association leadership roles, including Director of Membership Development and Marketing at the National Coffee Association from 2000 to 2007, Director of Membership at IEEE from 1994 to 1996, and Director of Membership and Chapter Service at RIMS from 1989 to 1994. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Space Society, as President of the New York Space Frontier Society, and as an Advocate of the Space Frontier Foundation.
Steve is the author of The Obligation: A Journey to Discover Human Purpose on Earth and in the Cosmos, published by Vauxhall Publishing. The novel follows a young congressional aide who, while drafting a speech during the 1992 International Space Station funding debate, embarks on a philosophical journey that culminates in a framework — the Obligation — describing humanity’s responsibilities to one another, to the planet that gave us life, and to the greater cosmos.
The book has drawn endorsements from our Martine Rothblatt, Chairman and CEO of United Therapeutics, who called it the most accessible and practical book of philosophy for the 21st century; from our Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society; from our William E. Burrows, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for This New Ocean; and from our Rick N. Tumlinson, Cofounder of the Space Frontier Foundation. Read the National Space Society’s Book Review: The Obligation.
Steve is a frequent speaker on space settlement policy and space philosophy. He is a featured speaker at the 2026 International Space Development Conference of the National Space Society, and has been a recurring guest on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston. Watch Steven Wolfe: Beyond Earth Institute and Space Marketing Podcast with Steve Wolfe from Beyond Earth — Part 1.
A native New Yorker raised in the city’s outer boroughs, Steve attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Communications from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1983, where he was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity. He earned his Certificate in Not-for-Profit Accounting and Financial Reporting from New York University in 2010.
Read his contributions in SpaceNews and on 2211 World.
Visit his LinkedIn profile, the Beyond Earth Institute homepage, and his Goodreads author page. Follow him on X.