How we belong (in space)

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This week we’re quoting…

Jane Poynter (Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Space Perspective)

What Poynter said: 

“Astronauts often return from missions with a fire inside them… we call this the Space Perspective. And we think it can change the world and create a better future for our planet.”

We’re thinking about what it means to belong to a specialised world

Writing (for the blog) about starting a career in space tech has got us thinking about how it is that someone starts to feel they belong. 

There’s a moment in every career (sometimes early, sometimes much later) when you stop feeling like an outsider. The language becomes natural to you, the tools make sense, and you realise that you’re not just doing the work; you’re part of the culture that surrounds it too. 

In anthropology, this is sometimes called ‘joining a community of practice’. The slow, incremental changes that take you from being a newbie to a recognised insider. And it isn’t just about your job title or how many years of experience you have; it’s about belonging to a body of knowledge, and learning how that knowledge lives inside a group of people.

In space tech, this happens in surprisingly human ways

People tend to imagine the sector as a matrix of equations and cold engineering. But the deeper you go, the more you find that the real gravitational force is social. Teams develop their own rituals and in-jokes; silences and shortcuts. They pass down knowledge like an inheritance. 

Newcomers mimic the way veterans sketch or explain or debug – just as apprentices have always watched the hands of the master craftsperson.

During a lecture series, Genevieve Bell (a cultural anthropologist in tech) argued that in technological worlds, culture and values come first. Most of the time it looks like the machines are everyone’s focus; but the meanings, behaviours, and identities around them are what really hold the system together.

This is why people entering space tech might describe a moment when identity and knowledge start to interlock. For some, it’s the first launch they worked on. For others, the first time a piece of code controlled something in orbit. But sometimes there’s no single moment to pinpoint; it’s more of a sense that the way they see the world has changed. 

The space tech professionals we speak to at LEAP often talk about this moment indirectly. 

When Jane Poynter reflected on the “visceral connection” she felt during her early work in closed ecological systems (“I could feel the edges,” she said, “breathe the oxygen supplied by the plants.”) she was describing the process of identity taking root: knowledge becoming embodied, belonging becoming lived experience.

And in an interview for DeepFest, Shelli Brunswick (Chief Operating Officer at Space Foundation) took this idea even wider: 

“Through space, we are breaking down barriers that have historically limited access to the tech sector and ensuring that a broad range of perspectives contributes to addressing challenges like returning to the moon, exploring Mars, and solving urgent issues on Earth.”

It’s an invitation to join a knowledge community, and be a part of something bigger. 

Three ideas on knowledge and belonging

1. Belonging is a process, not a gate.
   Anthropologists like Etienne Wenger point out that newcomers usually begin at the edges (observing, absorbing, participating lightly) before gradually becoming central to the community’s knowledge. You don’t need to be an expert to start belonging. The act of trying is the first step.
   
2. Expertise is social as much as technical.
   Harry Collins’ work on expertise shows that you can become fluent in a domain before you can actually do everything in it. Speaking the language of a field (that might mean asking good questions, following debates, or understanding priorities) is legitimate expertise, and it’s a powerful form of belonging.
   
3. Identity is shaped by the work we care about.
   Space tech is unusual because its goals are unusually big. Many people feel their identity shifting as they work on Earth-observation models, or climate monitoring satellites, or exploration systems. It pulls them into a community with shared purpose – and shared ambition.

So here are some practical moves to help you find your place 

If you’re building a career in space tech (whether you’re building the tech or managing the people who build the tech, or…writing about the tech), take this as your invitation to find your own way to belong. 

Here are some ways to start: 

• Spend time at the edges. Read mission blogs, GitHub threads, ESA white papers. Belonging begins with immersion.
  
• Learn the conversational style. What metaphors do engineers use? What problems do founders worry about? What values do mission teams repeat?
  
• Seek micro-mentors. In most teams and industries, knowledge is passed through small interactions – reviews, side comments, 10-minute explanations.
  
• Build one small thing. Identity solidifies through doing. A model, a dashboard, a tool, a piece of writing – something that connects you to the wider field.

Belonging in a specialised field 

Space tech will always be a world of specialists. But behind every specialism is a culture – a way of thinking and speaking and imagining – that you can learn your way into.

The journey to belonging is kind of like entering orbit, actually. You build speed, adjust course, and suddenly you’re held in place by a force you can just…feel. 

If you’re looking for a community where knowledge becomes belonging, join us at LEAP 2026. You’ll meet the people building culture across tech verticals – and maybe you’ll find your own perfect entry point in it. We can’t wait to welcome you.

Have an idea for a topic you'd like us to cover? We're eager to hear it. Drop us a message and share your thoughts.

Catch you next week,
The LEAP Team