Chris Starr

Chris Starr FRAS FBIS, IAAA Associate Member, is a space activist, writer and speaker. He worked as Head of Geography and Space Science at an international school in Switzerland until 2011, where he built a small observatory and organised public outreach events in the Alps, including the design and installation of an outdoor exhibition for IYA 2009 in the ski resort of Villars.

He left secondary teaching in 2011 to continue working in STEM outreach in the UK. He founded the Wells & Mendip Astronomers in Somerset, of which he is Chairman.

A Fellow of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the British Interplanetary Society, he is also a contributing writer for the BIS’ ‘Spaceflight’ magazine. He is an Associate Member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, for whom he organised a major astronomical and space art show in Wells in 2015.

Originally a graduate of the London School of Economics, Chris has also studied Astronomy and Planetary Science with the Open University. His main fields of interest are in Planetary and Earth Sciences and Solar System history, as well as in unmanned and manned space exploration. He has been fascinated by the space programme since hearing the captivating ‘bleep-bleep’ of Sputnik as a young child, and believes firmly that, in the words of Tsiolkovsky, we ‘cannot remain in the cradle forever.