Estonia in Space

Enterprise Estonia is the developer of the Estonian space policy and space business, and it promotes international cooperation, providing Estonian companies with new business opportunities on markets contributing to high technology. Estonia has been a full member of the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2015. The Estonian Space office:

• mediates the invitations to tender of ESA (Participation in the invitations to tender of ESA enables Estonian companies and research institutions to successfully participate in the European Space Agency projects, thereby helping to bring new high-tech jobs to Estonia. It also creates prerequisites for the development of science-intensive products and services with high added value that are internationally competitive.)
• consults the project developers
• organises information days, seminars, conferences, study trips, and match-making events

Enterprise Estonia does not financially support the preparation of projects. Estonia is involved in more than 50 projects with European Space Agency since 2010, contributing 2,6 million euros to European Space Agency’s annual budget. It has excellent capabilities in the area of Earth Observation Applications, with leading experts in software, especially ground software, system connectivity, security, remote access, data protection, machine learning and e-government/ e-business. A new satellite data centre, called ESTHub, which will help technology companies to retrieve and process remote sensing data from space faster, was inaugurated in May in Tallinn, Estonia. ESTHub was officially opened in a ceremony on 16 May 2019 at the e-Estonia Presentation Center, attended by the Secretary General of the Estonian Ministry of the Environment Meelis Münt, Deputy Secretary General for Economic Development in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications Viljar Lubi, Estonian Land Board Director General Tambet Tiits and ESA Director General Jan Wörner. This new centre will help to boost the use of satellite data by Estonian governmental institutions, researchers, universities, students and private companies, by providing easier data access and processing services. The centre provides public and private users with access to Sentinel-1, -2 and -3 data and the possibility to process data on site. This means that users do not have to download many terabytes of data, instead they download only the end products they need. The development of Estonia’s data centre traces its history back to 2016, when an agreement was signed between ESA and Enterprise Estonia. As an ESA Member State, Estonia has access to ESA’s Collaborative Ground Segment, which allows faster data downloads to the national points of contact. Enterprise Estonia authorised the Estonian Land Board to be the national point of contact, and to develop and manage ESTHub. From early 2019, the functions of ESTHub have been tested by a number of national users. The Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board is using ESTHub for detecting grassland mowing. The Estonian Environment Agency KAUR is using Sentinel-1 data for ice-cover mapping but plans to use Sentinel data in forestry applications and to monitor flooded areas. The development of Estonia’s data centre traces its history back to 2016, when an agreement was signed between ESA and Enterprise Estonia. As an ESA Member State, Estonia has access to ESA’s Collaborative Ground Segment, which allows faster data downloads to the national points of contact. Enterprise Estonia authorised the Estonian Land Board to be the national point of contact, and to develop and manage ESTHub. From early 2019, the functions of ESTHub have been tested by a number of national users. The Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board is using ESTHub for detecting grassland mowing. The Estonian Environment Agency KAUR is using Sentinel-1 data for ice-cover mapping but plans to use Sentinel data in forestry applications and to monitor flooded areas.