Invited by the Swedish Embassy and Business Sweden, SSC participated in a Sweden – India top-level collaborative seminar last week on Sustainability in Outer Space’ – Opportunities for a Sweden-India space partnership.

In his introductory remarks, ambassador Christian Kammill, charge de Affairs of the Swedish embassy in India, underlined the importance of the topic to allow for the utilization of Space for coming generations.

In a Keynote speech, Stefan Gustafsson, SSC Senior Vice President Strategy & Sustainable Business, pointed out the importance of fast actions to establish a global ability to manage the fast-growing utilization of space, the satellites decisive for the 17 UN sustainability goals and thereby also for coming generations. He also underlined the great opportunities for business collaboration on the Indian market, both to strengthen the prerequisites for sustainable space operations and for space services in general.

Dr. Vinod Kumar, Director, Indian Department of Space, IN-SPACe added to the positive opportunities of the fast-growing Indian space segment, especially regarding tech development both within agencies and for the fast-growing commercial segment.Mr. Laxmesh, Head of Aerospace Business, Larsen & Toubro, a large Indian industrial conglomerate, provided a similarly positive industrial perspective. He pointed to the global view of the space segment and the opportunities this provides, given the ability to manage long-term sustainable space utilization and investments.

The Keynotes were followed by a debate led by Cecilia Oscarsson, Swedish Trade & Invest Commissioner to India. Dr. Anil Kumar, Associate Director of ISRO, ISTRAC, and Vice President of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), joined the keynote speakers, providing good insights on the maturity of Indian Space Situation Awareness efforts.

Dr. Kumar also underlined the positive prerequisites for SSC – Indian prosperous collaboration in the segment, inviting SSC to an international technical summit in January next year.