Finland to weigh viability of joining ESA’s human spaceflight

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has launched a study to assess the benefits of Finland’s possible participation in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) human spaceflight and space exploration programme, said an official press release on Monday.

Joining the programme would give Finland access to projects on the International Space Station, missions to the moon, the planned space station in orbit around the moon, and spaceflights to Mars.

“Until now, Finland has not participated in the ESA’s optional programme for human spaceflights and space exploration. Instead, Finland has allocated funding to other programmes based on national strengths and strategic priorities. However, the Finnish space sector has developed in many ways in recent years. For example, a number of innovative products, applications and services developed here could be relevant to manned spaceflights, robotic missions and other space exploration,” said Maija Lönnqvist, Finnish member of the ESA Council.

In order for Finland to take part in the programme, it would have to offer Finnish companies and research organisations opportunities not available through other ESA programmes.

The study will try to find out to know various issues such as how Finnish businesses, research and education would benefit financially and socially from Finland’s participation in the programming period 2023–2025 and beyond.

In practice, participation in the programme would mean an increased funding contribution to the ESA by Finland. Finland’s total annual budget for the ESA’s mandatory and optional programmes is currently around EUR 28 million.

Finland will consider the results of the study when it decides in 2022 in which ESA programmes to participate in the next programming period.