Former Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge has launched To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science. The organization comprises scientists, aerospace engineers and other creatives who will collaborate and enable researchers to explore the “outer edges of science” and technologies.
“The public interest in the outer edges of science and the understanding of phenomena has always been suffocated by mainstream ideology and bureaucratic constraint,” company President and CEO Tom DeLonge said in a statement. “We believe there are discoveries within our reach that will revolutionize the human experience, but they can only be accomplished through the unrestricted support of breakthrough research and innovation.”
As a “public benefit corporation,” the organization has started a crowdfunding campaign, which has raised more than $200,000 since it launched.
DeLonge has long been interested in UFO and extraterrestrial research. After parting ways with Blink-182 in 2015, he delved deeper into the subject, releasing the book Sekret Machines: Gods earlier this year and he’s also working on a movie that is related to those interests called Strange Times. “This project is aimed at creating a beacon and a vehicle to be able to interact directly with Millennials across the world,” DeLonge told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “Some of this stuff is empowering, and some of this stuff is frankly kind of scary. But you need to understand it, and you’re going to need to deal with it when we’re gone.”
The To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science will encompass three divisions: Science, Aerospace and Entertainment, and its team has an impressive resume. According to a statement, several of its team members have worked extensively within the intelligence and scientific fields, including some who have worked in and with the CIA and the Department of Defense.
“Imagine having 25th century science this century,” Dr. Hal Puthoff, the company’s co-founder and Vice President of Science and Technology, said in a statement. He is an advisor to NASA, the Department of Defense and has done research for a variety of entities, including General Electric, the NSA and Stanford University. “We’ve mobilized a team of experienced, connected and passionately curious minds to reveal and decode information that can challenge the limits of traditional theory, such as the study of UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) technologies. Together, we’re bringing transformative science and engineering out of the shadows to introduce profound possibilities.”
