ESA’s space exploration director from 2016 until June 2023, David Parker created its Terrae Novae exploration programme which includes astronaut missions to the ISS, Mars exploration with ExoMars and Mars Sample Return as well as Europe’s contributions to Artemis including the European Service Modules for Orion and the lunar Gateway. At the 2022 ESA space conference in Paris, ministers approved a further one-third funding boost for the programme allowing the start of the Argonaut lunar lander programme enabling sustained exploration of the Moon throughout the 2030s. Trained in aeronautics and astronautics, David Parker’s thirty-three years in the space sector includes fourteen in industry, six with UK government space research agencies and four as Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency. In 2019, David Parker received the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Geoffrey Pardoe award for long and valued service to the space sector.