600th rocket launched from Esrange
Today, at 08.38 UTC, the Swedish space industry reached an impressive milestone as the 600th suborbital rocket, MAPHEUS-15, was launched from SSC spaceport Esrange Space Center in Kiruna. The science rocket reached an altitude of 309 km carrying a payload containing 21 different experiments.
The payload featured a wide range of scientific disciplines which were conducted during 7 minutes of microgravity, for example, advanced material science and biological research on human cells. The payload will be recovered by helicopter tomorrow.
“I am very proud of this milestone which shines a light on the many years of international collaboration at Esrange. This has been instrumental in achieving hundreds of successful rocket missions, providing invaluable access to space for scientists worldwide”, says Lennart Poromaa, Head of Esrange Space Center.
Years of Swedish-German collaboration
This campaign was successfully conducted in a joint partnership between SSC and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The launch was conducted by DLR’s Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) and the scientific payload was managed by DLR’s institute for Material Physics in Space.
“We are grateful for the many years of extremely productive collaboration, during which also the core teams from SSC and DLR have grown together. Thanks to their support, the MAPHEUS program has grown tremendously over the past 15 years, and we are looking forward to many more launches to come,” says Thomas Voigtmann, DLR Project Manager for the MAPHEUS campaigns.
Info about the science onboard: https://sscspace.com/600th-rocket-launched-from-esrange
More about Esrange history: https://sscspace.com/the-600th-rocket-a-story-of-swedish-space-1/
Contact: Philip Ohlsson, Head of PR & Press, +46 70 721 70 26, philip.ohlsson@sscspace.com
About Swedish Space Corporation
Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) helps Earth benefit from Space. Since the 70’s, SSC has helped space organizations, companies, other commercial actors and research institutes to get access to space. Through our local presence on all continents and close to 700 committed employees, we offer specialist expertise in satellite ground station connectivity, spacecraft operations, rocket and balloon systems, launch services, flight test services and data analytics. Among our strongest assets are Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden, set to begin launching satellites from Sweden in 2025, as well as our global ground station network for satellite communications: SSC Connect. Read more at www.sscspace.com.
