Ahead of This Week's Starship Launch, FUTURE of SPACE Co-Founder Daniel Fox Makes the Case for Why We Go to Space

In his new essay, Space Story 2.0, Fox argues space has never had a technology problem, only a story problem, as FUTURE of SPACE brings its VECTOR series to Los Angeles November 13 to 14.

PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As SpaceX prepares this week's historic Starship flight, targeted for Friday, November 13, Daniel Fox, Co-Founder of FUTURE of SPACE, has published "Space Story 2.0," an essay arguing the big question of why we go to space matters more now than ever.

"Space has never had a technology problem. It has a story problem," said Fox. "We kept the rockets and lost the story. And when things get hard, the story is what people lean on."

The essay begins at Rice Stadium in 1962, where President Kennedy gave a crowd a reason to go to the Moon before anyone knew how to get there. Fox traces how the reason was lost, through Carl Sagan's Contact, Alain de Botton's Atheism 2.0 and an Overview Effect offering "an address" rather than "a direction." Looking at Artemis II and the debate over NASA's spending to return to the Moon, he finds every answer on offer is a means, and "none of them is a reason."

His answer requires neither a god nor pretending humans are perfect. The scale of the universe, he writes, is not proof of our smallness but the odds it took for life to happen even once. "We are the first species about to take life beyond the planet where it began. Not as conquerors and not as a cancer, but as life's way of continuing its own story," Fox writes. "Nature gave us the foundation, and we give it direction."

FUTURE of SPACE and VECTOR Los Angeles

With Tristan Tanovan-Fox, Fox co-founded FUTURE of SPACE, where astronauts, scientists, artists, musicians, technologists and curious minds meet to experience exploration and innovation firsthand, not from a screen. Its Space2Sea voyages sailed to Antarctica in 2024 with featured guests including William Shatner, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Charlie Duke, Ann Curry, Scott Kelly, José Hernández, Céline Cousteau and Keyon Harrold, and to the Galápagos in 2025 with Kathryn D. Sullivan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Beth Shapiro, Chai Vasarhelyi and GMUNK. Next, the Arctic Voyage of Perspective sails to Svalbard in July 2027 aboard Scenic Eclipse I with Mike Massimino, Brian Greene, Adam Savage, Beth Shapiro and Derrick "D-Nice" Jones. The Kimberley Voyage of Totality follows in July 2028, when a total solar eclipse will turn day to night for more than five minutes. FUTURE of SPACE also produces The Universe Is Absurd!, a live, unscripted conversation between William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Fox also hosts the FUTURE of SPACE video podcast, where he has interviewed more than 100 leaders from space, technology and science, including Chris Hadfield, Eileen Collins, Scott Kelly, Lori Garver, Peter Beck, Avi Loeb, Victor Vescovo, Amy Webb and Brian Greene (https://futureofspace.io/podcasts/). His essays challenge prevailing assumptions about where humanity is headed (https://futureofspace.io/articles/).

This weekend, FUTURE of SPACE hosts VECTOR Los Angeles: Shaping the Next Frontier, November 13 to 14, a members-only series of behind-the-scenes experiences for its Constellation community. On Friday, as Starship is set to fly, guests go inside four companies building humanity's future in space: AstroForge with Co-Founder Matt Gialich, Vast, Impulse Space with Founder Tom Mueller, and Apex with Founder Ian Cinnamon. Saturday brings a private visit to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and a fireside chat between Fox and Richelle Ellis on the intersection of exploration, art and self-discovery.

"We have the rockets. We have the engineers. We have more capacity to explore than any generation before us," Fox writes. "What we lack is the reason we can say out loud."

"Space Story 2.0" is available at https://futureofspace.io/space-story-2-0/.

About Daniel Fox

Daniel Fox is the author of Feel the Wild, Co-Founder of FUTURE of SPACE and host of the FUTURE of SPACE video podcast.

About FUTURE of SPACE

Founded by Daniel Fox and Tristan Tanovan-Fox, FUTURE of SPACE believes exploration is humanity's most powerful driver of progress. It champions the spirit of exploration as a fundamental tool for finding solutions, and brings people together to experience the physicality of exploration and innovation firsthand. Its work rests on three pillars: Embrace New Frontiers, Celebrate the Human Experience and Elevate the Conversation. Its programs, Space2Sea, VECTOR, Orbit and Kaleidoscope, are connected by Constellation, the FUTURE of SPACE private membership community. Learn more at www.futureofspace.io.

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