Can Donald Trump and Elon Musk ship UK house corporations into orbit?

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is ‘great news’ for Britain’s burgeoning space firms, according to a senior figure in the industry.

The president-elect – who is close to space entrepreneur and Tesla boss Elon Musk – could increase spending in the sector in a move that would send ripples through the industry worldwide.

Musk – who has been dubbed Trump’s ‘first buddy’ – founded Space X in 2002 and it is now a leading designer, manufacturer and launcher of advanced rockets with a value of £275billion.

Mark Boggett, chief executive of global space investment firm Seraphim Space, told the Mail that Musk’s position in Trump’s inner circle will ‘pay off well for the NASA budget’. 

‘He expects this to align with the tycoon’s ambition to ‘accelerate the path to getting man off planet Earth’.

And the benefits of this ‘won’t just be limited to the US players,’ Boggett added.

Some of the world’s richest billionaires – including Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and British entrepreneur Richard Branson – are competing to send tourists into space with Musk, 53, even aiming to build a colony on Mars.

But the space race also involves improving communications via satellite links, bolstering defences and increasing research into areas such as climate change.

Musk and Space X have dominated the scene for years and Bezos’s own ambitions suffered a setback yesterday when his Blue Origin space company called off the launch of its New Glenn rocket by at least a day after ‘a few anomalies’.

Seraphim Space is a London-listed investment trust with a value of £127million. It invests in space technology firms including D-Orbit, HawkEye 360, LeoLabs and PlanetWatchers. 

Boggett said the industry looks set to benefit from increased defence spending as well as Trump’s partnership with Musk.

Trump has demanded increased military spending across Nato’s European members. Boggett said: ‘They don’t want to carry the costs of being policeman of the world.’

He said rising defence budgets will inevitably drive more focus towards space – whether through traditional government agencies or innovative private companies like Space X.

Because of the UK space sector’s ‘dual use nature’ in space and defence, Boggett sees it benefiting as the US and Europe ramp up spending.

‘The UK has a great relationship for companies that are building and developing space and defence-related capabilities to be able to sell that into the US market,’ he said.

‘There is a long-term trust relationship for UK companies selling to the US Department of Defence.’

The war in Ukraine has already led to an increase in defence budgets, and Boggett believes that extra spending is now finding its way into the space market.

‘This massive refocus on defence has already provided a lot of positivity in the space market,’ he said.

With investors backing companies poised to benefit from a surge in spending, Boggett added, the sector is seeing renewed interest.

He said that a ‘healthy interest in space tech in the last five quarters’ and said growing confidence among investors ‘should bring more capital to the entrepreneurs’ – including those at the helm of Britain’s space firms. 

Boggett said the 18 companies across Seraphim’s investment trust are growing revenue by 17 per cent a year on average, with a majority of this coming from new contracts in the defence market.

With Trump back in power, he expects the ‘already accelerating’ industry to take ‘another step upwards’.

The president-elect has made it clear his space agenda will be ‘America First’ and Boggett concedes his relationship with Musk is ‘really leveraging an advantage that they already have’. 

But as Trump and Musk push to maintain ‘US supremacy’ in space, Boggett foresees the UK benefiting.

He said Britain has ‘for decades been punching above its weight’ in terms of space investment, ranking third behind the US and China.

While the US wants ‘access to the best in class’, it does not have the rights to all the best technology.

‘This is where the UK is proving itself by supporting companies and financing those companies that have got those unique capabilities the US needs to acquire,’ said Boggett.

He called on the Government to seize the moment, saying it ‘needs to make itself clear about how it is going to run with this opportunity that has presented with space’.

These opportunities will also stretch across Europe, Boggett suggests, as the continent ‘looks to stand on its own two feet when it comes to both space and defence’.

Boggett said this would come with ‘significant investment,’ which bodes well for Britain. Global growth in the space sector is already leading to increased competition.

Data collected by Seraphim Space shows that Chinese investment in space tech overtook the US in the first half of the year.

While this reverted in the third quarter as US year-to-date investment reached £2.1billion to China’s £1.7billion, Boggett emphasised ‘this really shines a light on just how competitive the Chinese government is in the important market of space’.

Because of the UK’s relationship with the US, Boggett believes the nation will have a ‘pivotal role to play in space’ as Trump looks to stay on top.

However, he also warned despite the short-term optimism for UK companies, there remains ‘a question mark’ over the longer-term impact.

He predicts ‘significant opportunity’ for the UK space companies selling to the US market but is concerned about increased mergers and acquisitions with the US ‘effectively being the main acquirer’.