Proposals for a European spaceport for Virgin Galactic in northern Sweden have been featured by the Invest in Sweden Agency (ISA), a government agency that works to attract foreign investment in the country. The short article notes that Virgin Galactic in particular is interested in establishing a spaceport at Kiruna, which already hosts sounding rocket launches. However, despite the official imprimatur, the ISA article doesn’t indicate any kind of government approval or endorsement of the project: the article appears to be cribbed from (and cites) an article in a British newspaper previously discussed here.
The Swedish Civil Aviation Authority, Esrange and tourist goal “Icehotel” management are together forming a consortium to make this happen.
Official governmental support is as of yet not expressed. Swedish media and society in general are not aware of the unique swedish space infrastructure in Europe, and not ready for offensive ventures. My hope is this will change in a few years. The consortium hopes to be able to establish Esrange as a spaceport 2010-2011.
[…] British media, such as The Scotsman newspaper, reported that Scotland is being considered for a Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceport, in particular an existing air base, RAF Lossiemouth. Other than specifically identifying a proposed site, though, there’s not much new here, since Virgin Galactic officials have previously indicated they are considering Scotland for a European location, but are also considering Kiruna in Sweden. […]