The Guild of Space Professionals exists to give those whose life’s work spans humanity’s two great frontiers \u2014 Space and Ocean \u2014 a home for craft, fellowship, and stewardship: a community grounded in the City of London’s ancient tradition of Livery Companies, formed on the path to become a London Livery Company. There are more than 55,000 Space Professionals in the United Kingdom, with over 20% based in London. The emergence of a Guild of Space Professionals in the London Livery tradition is a natural expression of a mature and growing profession coming together around its craft, standards, fellowship, and stewardship. It follows an ancient pattern through which professionals have organized themselves for centuries, adapted now for the frontiers and opportunities of the modern era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What follows is not a record of individuals. It is a record of the moments, places, and conversations through which Space Professionals, on two continents and across many disciplines, have begun to gather into something enduring. Each entry marks a step on a path others are now invited to walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The path so far:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
11 November 2025 \u2014 In and Out Naval and Military Club, London. Over a drink at the Goat Brasserie, the idea of a Space Livery, in the tradition of the City of London’s ancient Livery Companies, is first spoken aloud. A handshake between the co-founders, David Sandy and Karen Earle Lile, settles it: \u201cconsider it done.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 17 November 2025 \u2014 The Canning Room, In and Out Naval and Military Club, London. The first gathering of more than two: Josh Broom and Tobias Lin join the co-founders to consider the concept of a Space Livery, and a toast is raised to its creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 25 November 2025 \u2014 Oxford and Cambridge Club, London. At the Social Register Thanksgiving Dinner, the concept is shared for the first time by the co-founders, with an Anglo-American audience: Chairman of the Social Register Christopher Wolf and Mrs. Lise Honor\u00e9 Wolf, Lord and Lady George de Cubberley, and other guests at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mid-November to December 2025. The founding membership of the Space and Oceans Unified Sustainability and Systems (SOUSS) Council is invited, one by one. Each invitation is an act of recruitment to a shared purpose \u2013 a core mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8 December 2025 \u2014 San Francisco to London. The founding instrument of the SOUSS Council is committed to vellum in calligraphy and India ink, then carried by hand on the BART train beneath San Francisco Bay and dispatched overnight to London. A document of the new frontier, written in the manner of the old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vellum has not since rested in a drawer. In the manner of older charters that travel with the work they describe, it has been carried into Guildhall, into government and industry offices, into the meetings and gatherings that have shaped this story \u2014 a physical witness, present wherever the Guild’s name is spoken. It is travelling today\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10 December 2025 \u2014 London Stock Exchange. At the London Global Space Finance Summit 2025, Minister for Investment Jason Stockwood, who spearheaded the event, voices public support for a Guild of Space Professionals on the path to a London Livery Company in his Summit address. The City is becoming aware of our Mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12 February 2026 \u2014 Guildhall, City of London. A preliminary meeting at the seat of the City: Laura Dobbie Miller (Clerk of the Chamberlain’s Court), James Edwards (Senior Parliamentary Briefings Officer, Remembrancer’s Department) and Dave Hollander (Deputy Clerk of the Chamberlain’s Court) receive Karen Earle Lile, Alan Thompson, Mark Wheatley, Josh Broom and Anushka Sharma of the SOUSS Council to discuss the ancient path from Guild to Company to Livery Company. With enthusiasm, the Council agrees to Laura Miller’s request to mention the meeting to the Court of Aldermen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 19 February 2026 \u2014 An Alderman of the Court of Aldermen, agrees to make himself available in support of the Guild of Space Professionals, while counseling openness to the guidance of the Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 March 2026 \u2014 Space-Comm Expo, ExCeL London. A social convened by Anushka Sharma gathers Space Professionals around the Guild concept; members of the SOUSS Council and others in attendance carry the discussion forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 30 April 2026 \u2014 DWC London Space Finance 2026, central London. The event convened by Mark Wheatley becomes a platform for the potential Guild: members of the SOUSS Council present the concept to assembled Space Professionals, and it is warmly received. Co-founders use this event to stress test feeling on shaping the right mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12 February \u2013 29 May 2026 \u2014 Across the City of London. Conversations are opened with the Worshipful Companies of Information Technologists, Air Pilots, Scientific Instrument Makers, Salters, and World Traders \u2014 sister Liveries whose example, support, and counsel the Guild now seeks as it walks the same ancient path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 28 April \u2013 27 May 2026 \u2014 From San Francisco to the In and Out Club, London. A letter of thanks to His Majesty King Charles III, prompted by his address to the US Congress on 28 April in San Francisco, is composed in transit by Karen Earle Lile and refined in London with David Sandy and Josh Broom. On 13 May it is written in calligraphy by Ms. Lile, in ancient Stationers Tradition on SOUSS Council stationery and signed at the letter desk in the Reception Room of the In and Out Naval and Military Club by our co-founders. On 27 May an archive copy is lodged with Anthony Lee, Club Secretary and Chief Executive, for the Club’s archives, and the letter is posted from the Ryman Post Office a short walk from the Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 29 May 2026. Co-founders request that Alan Thompson assumes the interim mantle of Clerk of the Guild of Space Professionals, carrying the formal process forward toward London Livery Company status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18 June 2026 \u2014 A letter is sent by post from Buckingham Palace to Karen Earle Lile and David Sandy, addressed to them at the Naval and Military Club, No. 4 St. James\u2019s Square, London SW1Y 4JU. The letter is sent in response to their earlier correspondence to His Majesty King Charles III on behalf of the SOUSS Ad Hoc Council, written following His Majesty\u2019s address to a Joint Meeting of the United States Congress. Their letter informed His Majesty of their intention to establish a Guild of Space Professionals on a path toward becoming a City of London Livery Company and referenced the principles of Astra Carta and Terra Carta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 19 June 2026 \u2014 Suite 5, Adam House, 7\u201310 Adam Street, The Strand, London WC2N 6AA. The Aerospace Corporation UK, Ltd offers its address as the Guild’s home during the formation phase \u2014 a fixed point on the map for a community still gathering and a mission already underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 23 June 2026 \u2014 The first letter of support from a City of London Livery Company for the Guild of Space Professionals is posted to Suite 5, Adam House, 7\u201310 Adam Street, The Strand, London WC2N 6AA. The letter will be held by the Clerk, Alan Thompson, until the appropriate stage in the Guild-to-Company-to-Livery Company formation process in accordance with City of London tradition. Archival copies will be retained by the Co-Founders in the United Kingdom and the United States. It marks the beginning of a collection of letters that, in time, may help tell the story of a profession finding its place within one of the world\u2019s oldest civic traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 23 July 2026 \u2014 The letter from Buckingham Palace, dated 18 June 2026, is delivered by Club staff to Karen Earle Lile in the Courtyard of the Naval and Military Club while she is in residence there. Later that day, Karen reads the letter to David Sandy over Teams, completing the journey of a correspondence they had begun together. An archival copy is subsequently presented to the Naval and Military Club, which already holds an archival copy of Karen and Dave\u2019s original letter to His Majesty. Because the Buckingham Palace correspondence is marked Private and Confidential, its contents are not published here. Its receipt is recorded with gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Guild of Space Professionals exists to give those whose life’s work spans humanity’s two great frontiers \u2014 Space and Ocean \u2014<\/p>\n