The Danish government is proposing 2.7 billion kroner of spending on space research over a three-year period from 2026, it said on Monday.
Investment in space research is part of a broader proposal on innovation and research which will be presented in the near future, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science said.
“Space has become a very important political area,” the Minister for Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund said in a statement.
“There’s no doubt that we need to be able to do more for ourselves, both from a Danish and European perspective.
“That’s why the government is proposing the largest-ever Danish investment in space,” she said.
The government says it wants to “support the development of new commercial launch rockets that will give Europe better access to space.”
The funding will also be used to increase Denmark’s contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA) to 1.2 billion kroner during 2026-2028.
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The government proposal comes as Aalborg University (AAU) announced the construction of new facilities for researching space technologies.
AAU plans to invest more than half a billion kroner in new facilities for research and education in space technologies, the university announced in a press release.
The 530 million-krone project will be partly financed by the university, with additional funding from Unilab Midler and the Danish Building and Property Agency (Bygningsstyrelsen).
“This is a very large investment. We’re doing it to ensure that space research in Denmark continues to be world-class,” Per Michael Johansen, Rector of Aalborg University, said in the press release.
The new facilities will primarily focus on space technology and will also facilitate research into robotics and drone flight, the university said.