Our History: The Chikyū Earth Orbital Foundation has its origins in the 1980s in a field west of Boston, Massachusetts. It was here that a sailor, Ernie Ginnetti, returned from years serving in the U.S. Navy on the U.S.S. Saratoga (CVA 60). Having fallen in love with astronomy at sea, he settled near the historic Wayside Inn, set up a family business, and built an observatory where he had clear views of the sky. With a Watch Officer's stamina to stay up all hours of the night and a passion for celestial engineering, he started a lifetime of "just checking in each night with a few planets and stars." Ernie was fascinated with the U.S. Space Program, satellites, and their evolution. An avid "tinkerer" he was a member of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston and the Rockland Astronomy Club of New York. His other love, maritime art, took a close second place to anything that was happening in the skies above. If you were ever up at two in the morning and wandered over to the observatory, you would never fail to find Ernie there with a warm invitation to join in his adventure among the stars (as well as to get out of the cold). And after decades of enchanting his friends and neighbors with evenings spent looking up at the heavens from his observatory, interstellar watch parties on the lawn, and telling everyone who would listen exactly which satellites were overhead (whether they asked or not), Ernie sadly passed away in 2019. During the long pandemic nights that followed, a collection of those same neighbors and friends banded together to purchase his property and observatory. With one being (not by sheer coincidence) a graduate student studying the space industry, we decided to carry on Ernie's reverence for the skies and to teach others its importance for human creativity, ambition, and history. Our mission is to continue Ernie's vision by educating all who visit that free enterprise actors, within a well-regulated and representative system, in partnership with international democratic governments is the key to our goal: nurturing space as an enduring common resource. Following in his footsteps, the Foundation seeks to connect with people from around the world and advocate for a rules-based vision of space. For example, we believe that low and middle Earth orbit (and beyond) is a common ground where known rules -- derived from democratic systems -- should allow private companies and entrepreneurs to responsibly contribute to human development. Ernie was not only a proponent of private activity in space, he felt -- as we do -- that governments are the cornerstone of space activity. From his time at sea, he knew that any ship, private or government, was aided by a strong safety and support system. For example, the U.S. Coast Guard (and its predecessor, the Life Saving Service) was vital for merchant sailors to venture out into the unknown and Ernie believed this stands as an example for development in LEO, MEO and GEO. As a result, Ernie always advocated for a "Coast Guard for Space." As do we. Ernie was a kind friend, honest mentor, and a firm believer that, no matter our background, we are all connected through the heavens. We keep that tradition alive. Together with a dread of light pollution.