Swedish Space
Corporation to launch satellites from Esrange
Space Center
The Swedish government announced a
decision to establish capability to launch small
satellites from Esrange Space Center in northern
Sweden.
The announcement is the third step in
an extensive modernization of the infrastructure
at Esrange to meet the growing demand of testing
and launching capability in the space sector and
was made today by the Swedish Space Minister
Matilda Ernkrans during the inauguration of a
new testbed facility for next generation rocket
technology at Esrange.
Esrange Space center is already one of
the most active and versatile launch sites in
the world and the latest decision allows SSC to
proceed with its goal to be able to launch small
satellites into orbit by 2022.
Today’s announcement follows the
overall ambition defined in the Swedish space
strategy decided upon in 2018. The strategy
underlines the importance of further developing
Esrange in order to fully utilize its potential,
strengthening Sweden’s position as a prominent
space nation within the European and global
space sector.
The new testbed at Esrange provides a
platform for European and global space sector to
develop next generation rocket technologies.
This will now be supplemented with additional
infrastructure needed for launching small
satellites from Esrange.
The first rockets tests will be
conducted by ISAR and RFA later this autumn,
both already established at the site. The
European Space Agency’s reusability programme
Themis will conduct its first reusability test
flights in 2022 from Esrange, in a collaboration
between SSC and ArianeGroup supported by
ArianeWorks (an innovation unit formed up by the
French Space Agency CNES and ArianeGroup). SSC’s
ambition is to launch the first satellites in
2022.
“This means that Sweden will be one of
the very few countries with capability to launch
small satellites. We are very proud of having
taken this decision,” said Matilda Ernkrans,
Swedish Space Minister, during her visit at
Esrange today.
“We are pleased that the Swedish
government has now decided to establish the
capability to launch satellites from Esrange.
The decision means that Sweden will become a
launching state, providing a capability that
only a few countries have, of great importance
for research, technology development and
expanded international collaboration”, said
Stefan Gardefjord, CEO at SSC.
This is a further major step in an
extensive plan to modernize the infrastructure
at Esrange Space Center to meet the growing
demand on the market for both testing and
launching capability. SSC and the Swedish
government have so far co-invested approximately
30 million USD in the project.