Credit: SSC Space
The Swedish government has proposed adding SEK 400 million (approximately €36.5 Million) to its Spring budget to support the development of sovereign launch capability at Esrange, with a focus on enabling military space operations. The funding will also support improvements to the country’s space licensing system.
During a press conference on 31 March, Sweden’s Minister for Upper Secondary School, Higher Education and Research, Lotta Edholm, and Minister for Defence, Pål Jonson, outlined an amendment to the government’s Spring Budget that would add SEK 400 million.
Edholm said that while the Swedish Space Agency currently handles just one to two launch permit applications per year, this is expected to increase tenfold to as many as 20 annually. She added that the agency currently lacks the capacity or necessary skills to meet this increased demand. As a result, the budget proposal will include SEK 14 million to build up this capability.
“The government is now strengthening the Swedish National Space Agency so that the authority can build up a predictable and appropriate permit and supervision operation,” said Edholm.
The remaining SEK 386 million will be used to support the development of launch capability at Esrange, operated by SSC Space.
Opened in the 1960s, the facility has historically hosted only suborbital rocket launches. In 2023, however, SSC Space, then known as the Swedish Space Corporation, inaugurated an orbital launch complex at the Esrange Space Centre. While the facility will initially be used to test the European Space Agency’s Themis reusable rocket demonstrator, South Korea’s Perigee Aerospace and U.S. launch provider Firefly Aerospace have both signed agreements to launch from the site.
During his remarks, Minister for Defence Pål Jonson explained that the SEK 386 million in funding would primarily be used, among other measures, to implement extensive security upgrades to the launch complex, enabling military space operations.
“The investments include launch capacity, groundworks, infrastructure, equipment for launch vehicles, and personnel,” said Jonson. “And, as mentioned, extensive security protection measures to handle military satellites. Increased military use requires, as stated, strengthened security protection.”
The SEK 386 million investment commitment for Esrange comes just weeks after the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) signed a SEK 209 million contract with SSC Space to “ensure protection, availability, and execution of satellite launches for the Swedish Armed Forces, as well as for partners and allies.”
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