Europe’s First Satellite Launch Complex Opens in Arctic Sweden, highnorthnews.com

Mainland Europe’s first satellite launch complex officially opened today at Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Northern Sweden. […]

The new space range Spaceport Esrange describes itself as Europe’s polar gateway to space. The facility has been under preparation for many years but has now received increased capabilities.

Today, only ten countries in the world have the capacity of launching orbital satellites. The Esrange facility in Kiruna is the first space base opened in mainland Europe seeing as the other European space base is located in French Guiana.

For Europe, the new orbital launch complex at Esrange will be a long-awaited critical resource. Spaceport Esrange will offer an independent European gateway to space, which supplies and strengthens the current European’s capacities in French Guiana in South America, writes the state-owned company, Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), which owns and operates Esrange, in a press release. Läs artikel