SSC / Esrange Space Center

Esrange Space Center, the Swedish Space Corporation’s (SSC) site 40 km east of Kiruna, is an international center for space and environmental research. Researchers from around the world come here to conduct research on board sounding rockets, high altitude balloons, satellites and with help from ground-based instruments. Esrange also has one of the world’s most active satellite stations for image-, TV-, weather-, GPS-, environmental- and other data receiving, as well as satellite control. Here there is a range of rocket-launching ramps for different types of sounding rockets, a balloon field the size of 40 soccer fields as well as modern accommodations for those researchers and technicians visiting Esrange.

With 40 years of experience, and a unique uninhabited rocket-impact area on land, Esrange Space Center offers unbeatable possibilities for activities such as atmospheric studies and research in weightlessness.

Space engineering has a direct useful impact on society, such as TV-broadcasting, weather forecasts, GPS navigation as well as environmental and climate observations. In the long run, the activities contribute to answers to some of the fundamental questions of how our planet came into being, our existence as well as the question of life on other planets.