Swedish state-owned space services company SSC Space (formerly Swedish Space Corporation) has entered a partnership with Finnish ground station operator NorthBase.

The deal will see SCC incorporate the latter’s NorthBase-2 Muonio ground station at 68N in Finnish Lapland as a partner site of SSC Space’s network, reinforcing service availability for present and future satellite missions.

“By working with NorthBase, we can extend our coverage further in the Nordic region and offer additional capacity to customers worldwide. It is an important step in deepening Swedish-Finnish cooperation and strengthening Nordic space capabilities in a security context. In today’s environment, where space is increasingly driven by defense and resilience needs, this type of collaboration becomes even more relevant,” said Carl-Johan Linér, interim president for the connect business at SSC Space, in a statement.

The companies hail the collaboration as a foundation for future commercial agreements supporting a widening portfolio of missions and services for both commercial and institutional customers. NorthBase founder and CEO Dr. Tommi Rasila emphasised the creation of enhanced coverage and operational flexibility for “Nordic, European as well as global [interests].”

SSC Space completed one such mission recently, a launch of 12 scientific experiments from nine nations from Estrange Space Center aboard one of its SubOrbital Express-5 rockets to study microgravity effects, financed by the European Space Agency. Express-5 is a sounding rocket, unable to reach the heights of low-Earth orbit (LEO), setting it apart from rockets capable of positioning satellites, though in a recent blog post, “the microgravity ‘goldrush’,” SSC Space suggested its suborbital program held unique possibilities to elevate research, citing microgravity’s potential for advancing protein crystallization in pharmaceuticals.

Sentiments on the strategic importance of ground stations have become more severe in Europe post Liberation Day, with debates about European sovereignty growing louder. In January, French satellite operator Eutelsat announced the cancellation of the sale of its ground station infrastructure following intervention by the French Government after the nation’s minister of economy, finance, industrial energy, and digital sovereignty described the antennas up for sale as “strategic infrastructure.”

NorthBase, founded in 2019, offers ground-station-as-a-service (GSaaS) solutions serving VHF, UHF, S-, X-, and Ka-band connectivity, announced it had joined Michigan-based ATLAS Space Operations’ “Freedom Network” last year, adding Muonio to the NATO portfolio of stations.

In the same year, Tokyo-based GSaaS provider Infostellar also added the Muonio site to its StellarStation network.

“You can take my word when I say there is very little interference and lots of room in Finnish Lapland, and the visibility from 68 degrees north is very good,” Dr. Rasila said in a statement at the time.