Constellations Lab: Outer Space & Feminism

Constellations Lab: Outer Space & Feminism focuses on intersectional feminist approaches to outer space - advocating for inclusive narratives, just futures, and equitable access in the present around outer space.

Constellations Cycle 2026

Led by Ellie Armstrong

The Constellations Cycle 2026 (Funded by the Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space) will bring together researchers interested in queer/feminist approaches to social studies of space in December 2026.

Before Humans, there were stars (2024-2026)

Led by Ellie Armstrong & Kirsty Robertson (Western)

This project (funded by Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council) reimagines museum displays of outer space debris through zero-waste zines and ecocritical narratives. We have created “Legacy Waste” a zine about the distributed remains of the Cosmos 954 Crash in the Canadian Arctic, drawing on the collections at Ingenium (Canada’s Museums of Science and Technology)

Gender in NewSpace Media (2025)

Led by Freya Rickman & Ellie Armstrong

This project (funded by the University of Leicester’s SURE Intern Programme) investigates the media representations of the Blue Origin space flights particularly focusing on how women are presented by Blue Origin as “astronauts” and scientists; in tension with the ongoing and well documented gender and sexual harassment at Blue Origin.

The project analyses these representations as part of postfeminist advertising campaign rhetoric, often positioning these women in tension with each other. Meanwhile, at least 21 cases of sexual assault have made it into popular media from Blue Origin - representing the tip of an iceberg of harassment reports, and policies and guidance designed to minimise this occurring. We analysed how media for NewSpace projects shapes expectations and practices for gender minorities in STEM? This project draws on works from Judith Butler, Sarah Ahmed, Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Rosalind Gill, and Kasey Windels.

Companion Meteorites (2025-2026)

Led by Ellie Armstrong & Team at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

As part of the Natural History Humanities scheme (funded by the University of Cambridge), Ellie has worked to trace the histories and pathways of the Cold Bokkeveld Meteorite from its landing in now-South Africa to institutions around the world. Through remix methods of collage, the project explores what queer geology theories can bring to meteorites in heritage contexts.

This work has been presented at the Meteorite Matters workshop (Paris, 2025) and inspired a zine workshop on Queering Natural History at the Linnean Society delivered by Ellie Armstrong and Liz Hide in February 2026. Read more about this project on the N2H Blog.

Overview Affect (2023-2024)

Led by Ellie Armstrong, Réka Gal & Carolina de Barros Vidor

Overview Affect (funded by the Swedish Research Council) brought together 10 international scholars on outer space to focus on intersectional feminist understandings of care, repair and maintenance in the context of outer space. We created a zine “Overview Affect” that brings together these different reimaingings, and hosted a writing retreat for feminist PhD scholars of outer space to build community.

Geopolitics of China’s Fusion Technology (2025)

Led by Zewelanji Nalwamba & Ellie Armstrong

This project (funded through the UKAEA’s FOSTER scheme) focuses on mapping China’s lithium and infrastructure pathways in the Global South, particularly in Zimbabwe and Chile, for nuclear space technologies. While these technologies promise a cleaner, more advanced future, where do the materials come from—and who bears the cost?

We use use Ian Cook’s ‘follow the thing’ method to trace how lithium moves from mining sites in Zimbabwe and Chile into China’s tech systems. This helps uncover the hidden relationships and power dynamics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative along the supply chain. The pathways from lithium sites pass through Chinese-controlled transport infrastructure such as the Port of Chancay, and Zimbabwe’s Birchenough Bridge — demonstrating how infrastructure supports China’s dual goal of resource control and technological leadership.

This research calls for us to not only view Global South countries as resource zones but also to place them as co-authors for future research and development. Not only does this research highlight the continuity of colonial patterns like exploitation, dependency, and underdevelopment, but it also affects indigenous communities in these countries.

EXO-MOAN Studio (ongoing)

Led by Akvilė Terminatė and Ellie Armstrong

EXO-MOAN studio works to centre pleasure, care, intimacy, and consent in outer space futures. We use speculative design research methods to imagine futures otherwise.

Our work has produced “EXO-MOANER’S Guide to Interplanetary Pleasures” (funded by the Cambridge Reproduction Network), and Touchy Feely Hack (featured at the Venice Biennale 2021).

It’s (not) rocket science (2023-2025)

Led by Ellie Armstrong & Team Rocket at the TMW

In collaboration with the Technisches Museum Wien's 'This is (not) Rocket Science' project (funded through the Bundesministerium Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung and OeAD Sparkling Science 2.0)., this project centred the gender experiences of Viennese Youth to understand how they imagine inclusive space futures.

This project was presented at the Technical Museum Vienna in an exhibition (Summer 2024) and at the European Space Agency’s Living Planet Symposium (Summer 2025). The project has been written up into a paper for the Journal of Science Communication.

Beyond the Hype of Fusion in Space (2025)

Led by Jasmina Dave & Ellie Armstrong

This project (funded through the UKAEA’s FOSTER scheme) investigated the hype surrounding companies promising fission and fusion technologies. Five hype narratives were developed from the media collected for the project: sustainability and green, nuclear utopia, visual hype, funding and endorsement.

For this case study, we thematically analysed five companies’ media and their manifestos. Ultimately, the project argues that, unlike fusion technology cycle waves of the past, we are in a cluster of concerns around the climate crisis where fusion companies are utilising the hype narratives to generate public trust and promote their technology, develop power through endorsements and build capital through financing from private and military sources. We used these narratives to uncover the ways nuclear technology companies present a simplistic and trustworthy visualisation, towards their own strategic ends.