11/7/2023 0 Comments Epic speed“With the old fashioned technology it could be a risk, with the new technology it is not at all,” said Gustafsson. The rocket would need to pass over Norway for 15 to 20 seconds with all the concomitant risks. “It was really not a danger for anyone,” he said.īut, until now, he concedes, a satellite-loaded rocket launching from Esrange had simply not been viable. A cynic might suspect that Norway, with its rival ambitions, had good reason to make a fuss. Photograph: Olle Janson/SSCīut in April, the Norwegian authorities issued an angry statement when an Esrange research rocket malfunctioned and landed in its territory. Mechanical engineers work on the SubOrbital Express (Maser 15) rocket in the dome building at the Esrange Space Center. It is barely inhabited, and the Sami reindeer herders who roam there have been provided with bunkers for use at the time of launches. What goes up, sometimes comes down.įor the remains of its suborbital rockets floating to Earth on parachutes, the Esrange base has a huge landing zone of 5,200km², a stretch of territory about twice the size of Luxembourg nestled between Norway to the west and Finland to the east. Europe’s heavy air traffic and densely populated terrain had traditionally offered few of the necessary conditions. Until now, European actors seeking to launch satellites were dependent on Russia and the European spaceport in French Guiana on the north-eastern coast of South America. About 18,500 small satellites are expected to be launched between 20, compared with 4,600 in the previous decade. It is estimated 50 satellites are being launched every week to cater for telecommunications, internet infrastructure, Earth observation capabilities and national security demands. In 2022, there were an estimated 6,905 active satellites orbiting Earth – an increase of 2,105 on the previous year. The lack of capacity has emerged at a time when there has been an exponential increase in the number of satellite launches globally. “When the sanctions came in, we had a gap and still have a gap in launching capabilities. “One of the problems that was rapidly obvious after the start of the Ukraine war was the lack of launching capability for Europe, heavily dependent on Russia and Baikonur, and also technical collaboration between the European space agency and Russia,” said Gustafsson, 65, a vice-president for strategy at the SSC who previously held a senior role in the Swedish military. The last 18 months in Ukraine have added extra urgency to efforts. Other frontrunners in the European scramble include the Andøya space centre in Norway and the UK’s SaxaVord rocket base in Unst, Shetland, with others further back in the pack in Iceland, Portugal’s Azores and Spain’s Andalusia. Photograph: US Marines/Zuma Press Wire Service/Shutterstock A cast of aspirants to be Europe’s “first” are gearing up.Īnother frontrunner in the European scramble includes the Andøya space centre in Norway. Technological advances and the emergence of micro-rockets have made it possible. This Swedish space centre is leading the pack in a fiercely competitive battle to be the first European base outside Russia from which a satellite is launched into orbit. New launch pads are being finalised, complicated liquid-fuel handling systems prepared, and a giant two-hall hangar, not dissimilar in appearance to a medium-sized Ikea, has been erected on the outer periphery of the base. Then there’s the whir and crash of diggers lumbering stone around the secure zone before the heavy winter snow falls. It is more Center Parcs than Kennedy Space Center.īut look at the pace at which the few members of staff on the base are doing their work, and listen to the hum of conversation. It has a worthy history in atmospheric, ionospheric and micro-gravity research but not one, perhaps, to set the pulses racing. Once owned by the European Space and Research Organisation, rebadged in 1975 as the European Space Agency, it is today the property of the SSC, a company wholly owned by the state. Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty A model of a ‘sounding’ rocket is placed in the centre of Kiruna.
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