The name of the organization shall be the McKinley Consortium (the "Consortium").

To ensure the long-term future of humanity by creating and operating the capability for sustained and permanent non-terrestrial existence, and by developing the technical, industrial, governance, and economic foundations required for participants and their successors to achieve a quality of life equal to or greater than that available on Earth.

The Consortium envisions a future in which:

1. Humanity maintains durable, self-expanding, non-terrestrial communities.
2. Orbital, lunar, and other off-world infrastructure supports continuous habitation, industry, science, commerce, and culture.
3. Non-terrestrial settlements evolve beyond isolated outposts into prosperous, multi-generational societies.
4. Space-based industry materially improves life on Earth while reducing civilizational concentration risk.
5. Access to off-world participation expands over time from governments and elite institutions to broad public and commercial involvement.

The Consortium is established to pursue the following purposes:

The Consortium shall operate in accordance with the following principles:

To advance its mission, the Consortium shall pursue the following strategic objectives:

1. Establish the legal and institutional framework for long-duration public-private collaboration.
2. Develop a technical roadmap for permanent orbital and other non-terrestrial habitation.
3. Design and deploy industrial infrastructure capable of in-space construction and expansion.
4. Develop supply chains integrating Earth-origin and non-terrestrial-origin materials.
5. Create the first operational large-scale orbital industrial and habitation platform.
6. Develop operating models for health, safety, logistics, governance, work, recreation, and family life in non-terrestrial settings.
7. Create financing, insurance, and commercial structures capable of supporting long-horizon infrastructure.
8. Define qualification, certification, and standards regimes for off-world industrial and civil systems.
9. Promote education, workforce development, and institutional continuity.
10. Expand over time toward increasingly self-sustaining non-terrestrial communities.

The Consortium may engage in, sponsor, coordinate, or facilitate activities including but not limited to:

• Systems architecture and concept development
• Research and development
• Standards development
• Habitat and industrial platform design
• Resource extraction and processing development
• In-space manufacturing and assembly programs
• Logistics, transportation, and servicing architectures
• Demonstration missions with direct relevance to permanent capability
• Workforce training and credentialing
• Public policy and regulatory coordination
• Insurance and risk management frameworks
• Financing and investment structures
• Public outreach and educational initiatives
• Long-term operational planning for non-terrestrial communities

Membership in the Consortium may include the following categories:

Each member shall:

1. Support the mission and purposes of the Consortium.
2. Comply with Consortium rules, standards, and governance decisions.
3. Contribute expertise, resources, funding, or programmatic support consistent with its membership class and commitments.
4. Protect confidential, safety-critical, export-controlled, and otherwise restricted information as required.
5. Conduct itself in a manner consistent with lawful, ethical, and safety-oriented participation.
6. Avoid actions that materially undermine Consortium operations, public trust, or strategic objectives.

The Consortium shall maintain a governance structure capable of balancing public interest, industrial execution, technical rigor, and long-term mission continuity.

The initial priorities of the Consortium shall include:

The Consortium expressly rejects the view that permanent non-terrestrial habitation should be limited to austere survival. Instead, it commits to developing environments that support a high quality of life. Accordingly, Consortium programs shall account for:

• Physical health
• Mental health
• Personal privacy
• Safety and security
• Family life and child development where applicable
• Education and training
• Social belonging and culture
• Recreation and beauty
• Economic opportunity and meaningful work
• Long-term civic dignity and personal autonomy

The Consortium shall treat these not as optional luxuries but as core system requirements for permanence.

Because the Consortium's mission involves life-critical systems and frontier environments, safety shall be a primary institutional obligation. The Consortium shall:

1. Establish formal safety management systems.
2. Define qualification and certification pathways for mission-critical and life-critical systems.
3. Require redundancy, maintainability, and inspectability in critical architectures.
4. Establish incident reporting, root-cause analysis, and corrective action frameworks.
5. Maintain emergency response, medical response, continuity, and evacuation planning appropriate to each operational phase.
6. Distinguish clearly between experimental systems and human-rated operational systems.

The Consortium shall operate in accordance with applicable law and shall engage constructively with public authorities, treaty frameworks, licensing bodies, standards organizations, and other regulatory stakeholders.

The Consortium may advocate for legal and policy modernization necessary to support permanent non-terrestrial infrastructure, habitation, commerce, and public benefit, provided that such advocacy remains consistent with the mission and principles of this Charter.

The Consortium shall establish rules governing intellectual property, shared technical baselines, data access, standards development, and confidentiality. In doing so, the Consortium shall seek an appropriate balance between:

• Incentives for private innovation
• Shared interoperability
• Public-interest outcomes
• Safety transparency
• Commercial confidentiality
• Long-term ecosystem growth

The Consortium may designate certain interfaces, safety standards, and interoperability requirements as open or common frameworks where doing so materially advances mission success.

The Consortium may be funded through one or more of the following:

• Public appropriations or grants
• Private capital contributions
• Membership dues or commitments
• Program-specific investment vehicles
• Philanthropic support
• Service revenue
• Licensing and standards programs
• Infrastructure use fees
• Long-term concession or participation models
• Other lawful funding mechanisms consistent with the mission

The Consortium shall pursue funding structures aligned with long-horizon infrastructure development rather than short-term symbolic activity.

The Consortium acknowledges that its mission carries implications not only for members, but for humanity broadly. It therefore commits to pursuing public benefit through:

• Expansion of scientific and industrial capability
• Civilizational resilience
• Educational opportunity
• Technology advancement with terrestrial benefits where practical
• Responsible access expansion over time
• Institutional transparency appropriate to mission, safety, and security requirements

The Consortium shall pursue a phased development approach:

This Charter may be amended by the Governing Council in accordance with procedures established in the Consortium's bylaws or operating agreement, provided that no amendment shall be adopted that materially negates the Consortium's core mission of enabling sustained and permanent non-terrestrial existence.

The Consortium shall not be dissolved except in accordance with procedures established by its governing documents and applicable law. In considering dissolution, decision-makers shall account for the long-term obligations associated with any operational infrastructure, resident populations, safety commitments, contractual duties, and public-interest responsibilities.