About Charles Chafer
Charles M. Chafer is chairman and chief executive officer of Celestis, Inc., which sells memorial spaceflights for families. He co-founded the company in 1994. He led the team that launched its first memorial spaceflight, the Founders Flight, in 1997. The company has flown 17 memorial spaceflights so far. One flight, at NASA's request, placed the remains of Dr. Eugene Shoemaker at the Lunar South Pole.
In the early 1980s he was vice president of government relations at Space Services, Inc. of America. That team, under Mercury 7 astronaut Deke Slayton, sent up the first rocket paid for with private money, the Conestoga 1. He studied at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He also held a faculty post in the Georgetown Graduate School. There he co-authored the NASA-funded book Social Sciences and Space Exploration. He was a member of President Reagan's White House Working Group on Space Commercialization. The National Space Society and the Space Frontier Foundation have honored him.
Experience
This experience comes from official bios and from SEC filings. For roles taken from filings, the years are when the filings name Charles Chafer in the role, so the role may have started earlier or lasted longer.
Key Colleagues at Startups
The people Charles Chafer works with at each company, as listed on that company's latest Form D.
