'Bring us your ideas,' NASA medical chief tells British space companies
'Don’t ever hesitate to bring an idea to us.'
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Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of The View from Space. This week, we’re at Space-Comm in Glasgow, chatting to people from across the sector about the future of British space.
🎙️ At an event in Glasgow hosted by the law firm Burness Paull, Dr J.D. Polk, chief health and medical officer at NASA, explained how NASA is moving from owning everything to setting standards and buying services. He urged space firms in Britain as elsewhere to bring their ideas forward, saying most fail to realise that NASA might need their work:
‘Don’t, don’t ever hesitate to bring an idea to us. I can’t tell you how many folks have said, “Oh, we didn’t think NASA would be interested. You guys are NASA! We didn’t think we would bring it up.” Folks are hesitant – you know, they don’t want to be embarrassed if NASA actually shoot down their idea, or something else. But bring them, then get the feedback, then iterate.
There’s a lot of room for collaborations to be had. Folks don’t realize that what they do or what they’re working on might actually have an impact, and they might be hesitant. But space is growing. You know, there’s so many things that are changing and evolving. There’s probably not any industry where space is not going to seep into something, where somebody could attach the word space in front of it for whatever they do.’
🛰️ Satellite Today has published a list of the 10 trends that will shape the satellite industry in 2026. It features insights from Jean-François Morizur of Cailabs and Lt. Gen. John Shaw, the former deputy commander of U.S. Space Command and an industry advisory board member at NewSpace Capital:
‘For Jean-Francois Morizur, CEO and founder of French startup Cailabs, which builds optical ground stations, he’s watching to gauge the specific intent of the national investments. “There’s one big question about the German investment in space — is it going to be to build a space capability, or is it going to be to build a space industry?” he asks.
Morizur sees a difference between investing in capabilities, which then filters down to stimulate the industry, versus funding jobs in an area. On IRIS², he sees the goal of a specific constellation as a positive indicator. “The European Union has said it’s to provide a service, so that’s good. They made it very clear that they want to provide that service,” he adds. …
This year, Space Force General Michael Guetlein detailed China practicing “dogfighting” in space — demonstrating maneuvering capabilities with satellites.
“I think the fact that China significantly demoed it this year has to really make us focus on that,” says retired Lt. Gen. John Shaw, who served as the deputy commander of U.S. Space Command.
“It’s about combat capability — how do I get more maneuverability than my adversary? We don’t have aerial refueling for our Air Force today because it’s a cheaper way to fly airplanes. It’s not. It gets us better combat capability,” Shaw says. “And then the civil piece — it’s hard to close the equation for a sustained human presence on the Moon without a refueling capability.’
Why, then, are we hesitating? Because we’re yet to unlearn some bad cultural habits.’
🏴 Scotland’s space strategy will get a refresh, with Richard Lochhead making the announcement at Space-Comm Expo today. The Independent reports:
‘The business minister is to announce Scotland’s space strategy will be refreshed to update the sector’s priorities. Later on Thursday, Richard Lochhead will speak at the Space-Comm Expo in Glasgow, where he will tell his peers the country is to become a significant player in the global space sector.
He will say the country’s space economy is attracting global investment, generating hundreds of millions of pounds annually, and supporting thousands of jobs. Ahead of the expo, Mr Lochhead said: “Space is one of Scotland’s greatest economic opportunities and a new chapter in our long tradition of world class innovation.
“The pace of change has been astonishing. Scotland’s space sector generates almost £400 million in income and employs more than 7,000 people.
“If you track the rate of growth across nearly a decade, with space organisations up by 60% and a 100% increase in income, you are not simply talking about growth, you are talking about acceleration. We now have the UK’s first licensed space port and are moving towards its first orbital launch.”’
🌍 The European Space Agency has secured a record budget increase and a clear defence and security mandate at its ministerial council, reports Science Business:
‘European Space Agency (ESA) member states agreed to increase the agency’s budget to €22.1 billion over the next three years at ESA’s ministerial council in Bremen on November 26 and 27, reflecting the growing importance of space for Europe’s security and technological sovereignty.
The final budget comes close to the €22.3 billion the agency had requested in order to deliver on the goals set out earlier this year in its strategy for 2040, and represents a 30% increase compared to the current budget.
ESA director general Josef Aschbacher said it was the first time he could remember an agreement coming so close to the requested budget. “When I saw these figures, I couldn’t believe it, I was very emotional,” he told reporters following the meeting. “I think this message of Europe needing to catch up [. . .] has been taken by our ministers very seriously.”
The resolution adopted by member states also includes a clear mandate for ESA to work on activities related to security and defence, and funding for a new European Resilience from Space programme to deliver advanced space-enabled capabilities in terms of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; navigation; and secure communications.’
🏁 President Trump’s pick to head up NASA has vowed that the United States will beat China to the Moon, adding that if the U.S. fails to do so, it ‘may never catch up’, and ‘the balance of power here on Earth’ could shift. The South China Morning Post reports:
‘The United States will redouble efforts to ensure its return to the moon ahead of China and also establish an enduring presence on Earth’s natural satellite to entrench the country’s presence, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on Wednesday during a Senate confirmation hearing.
Such a sense of urgency for the US to accelerate its pace in this “second space race” has haunted Capitol Hill, as Beijing, a strategic rival framed by Washington, is catching up quickly, from low-earth-orbit satellite communications to space stations and Mars exploration.
“America will return to the moon before our great rival, and we will establish an enduring presence to understand and realise the scientific, economic and national security value on the lunar surface,” said Jared Isaacman, an e-commerce tycoon who commanded the first all-civilian space flight in 2021 and was also the first private citizen conducting a spacewalk in 2024.’
💰 Following the release of its space defence strategy, and its €5.1 billion contribution to the ESA budget, Germany is pushing to become Europe’s leading space power, writes Le Monde.
‘Europe’s space community gathered on Wednesday, November 26, and Thursday, November 27 in Bremen, the northern German city-state long known for maritime trade before becoming a major aerospace hub, for a particularly crucial conference. For the first time, the event focused on European “autonomy” and “resilience” against a backdrop of profound geopolitical and security shifts. The European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial conference managed to secure a sharply increased budget for the next three years.
Member state contributions reached a record €22.1 billion, up from €16.9 billion in 2022, representing a 32% increase (17% excluding inflation), ESA director general Josef Aschbacher announced on Thursday. This three-year budget, still below NASA’s annual budget, has established a new hierarchy among ESA’s 23 member states.
Germany, with a €5.1 billion contribution (23% of the total), has reinforced its position as the primary funder of the European space sector, now far ahead of France (€3.6 billion), which had led for decades and remains the largest employer with nearly 40,000 jobs. “This is a tremendous blow for France, which built Europe’s space program,” said Gilles Rabin, former space adviser at the French embassy in Berlin. Paris is now neck and neck with Italy, which has raised its participation to €3.46 billion. ESA underscored this shift on Thursday when it announced that a German astronaut will travel to the Moon as part of the Artemis mission.’
🤦♂️ And Russia has managed to destroy its only means of sending cosmonauts to space. The recent launch of a Soyuz rocket led to part of the country’s only working launch pad falling into the ‘flame trench’:
Remarkable shift in NASA's procurement philosophy that directly addresses the innovation bottleneck you identified. Dr. Polk's emphasis on iterating after feedback rather than self-censoring before outreach fundamentaly reshapes supplier dynamics in ways that benefit smaller firms who might otherwise assume thier solutions don't scale to agency requirements. The intersection betwen medical systems development and lunar presence planning particularly underscores how enabling technologies developed for near-term missions compound into capabilities essential for sustained operations.