In October 2020, the then Minister of Higher Education Matilda Ernkrans (S) came to the space base Esrange. She announced an investment of an additional SEK 90 million over three years that would secure the infrastructure for launches of larger rockets that could take out smaller satellites into orbit.
The money is already in circulation
A total of 150 state million has been received for the investment and the owner of the space base state SSC has arranged the same amount of financing.
But the money is not enough.
This is the background for Kiruna municipality investigating the possibilities of lending money.
The fire became expensive
The funding has not been sufficient from the beginning and in addition, things have happened during the trip. The fire at Esrange two years ago became expensive to repair and on the construction of ramps and other infrastructure, there have been cost increases of between 20-30 percent.
– We have to find financial solutions and we work on a broad front, says Lennart Poromaa.
There are problems with this. As a state-owned company and also the owner of protected objects, SSC cannot raise venture capital. This is despite the fact that satellite launches are largely a commercial investment that is intended to pay off when customers flock.
Larger rockets are in demand
Now there is also a larger type of launcher that is in demand by the market.
– When we talked earlier, it was about rockets that carried satellites weighing up to 150 kilos. Now the market wants almost ten times heavier satellites from Esrange, says Lennart Poromaa.
His forecast is that it should be ready to launch smaller satellites towards the end of this year and larger satellites by the middle of 2023. But it is based on the fact that you do not have to stop the construction due to lack of money.