Space Is the New Silicon Valley — and Finland Needs to Claim Its Spot

Twenty years ago, Silicon Valley was where the future was being built. Today, much of that future is being built in low Earth orbit. Satellite constellations, in-orbit manufacturing, lunar missions, asteroid prospecting — what felt like science fiction a decade ago is now venture-backed reality.

Why Finland matters

Finland is not an obvious space player. We have no major launch site, no NASA-equivalent, no billion-dollar aerospace company. But we do have something that matters: deep engineering talent, a strong sensor-and-radio heritage from Nokia’s peak years, and a startup culture that is unusually willing to take long-horizon technical risks.

ICEYE, Reaktor Space Lab, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, Kuva Space — these are real Finnish companies competing globally in the space economy. They prove the model works. The question is whether we recognize what we have and double down — with smart public co-investment, sensible regulation and university programs that feed the pipeline — or whether we let other small countries with sharper strategies overtake us.