page_title: Esrange
section_title: Rocket activities
hierarchical_section_title: Esrange / Rocket activities
caption_attribution_description: English: Esrange rocket range launches sounding rockets that land in a vast, uninhabited area north of the range. Throughout this area are small shelters that one can use when a rocket campaign is planned. This is the interior of one such shelter at Vassejávri.
context_page_description: Esrange Space Center is a rocket range and research centre located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the aurora borealis, sounding rocket launches, and satellite tracking, among other things. Located 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by a vast wilderness, its geographic location is ideal for many of these purposes.
  Esrange was built in 1964 by ESRO, the European Space Research Organisation, which later became European Space Agency by merging with ELDO, the European Launcher Development Organisation. The first rocket launch from Esrange occurred on 19 November 1966. In 1972, ownership was transferred to the newly started Swedish Space Corporation.
context_section_description: There had been Swedish rocket activities previously, mainly at Kronogård (18 launches in the period 1961–1964). However, the rocket activity in Sweden did not gain thrust until after ESRO established Esrange in 1964.
  During the period 1966–1972 ESRO launched more than 150 rockets from Esrange. Most of these were Centaure, Nike Apache, and Skua rockets reaching 100–220 km altitude. They supported many branches of European research, but the emphasis was on atmospheric and ionospheric research.
  In 1972 the management of Esrange was transferred to the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). Gradually the smaller rockets were complemented by larger rockets reaching higher altitudes, achieving weightlessness for a few minutes when the rocket is above the parts of the atmosphere giving an appreciable friction. Three main programmes, Texus, Maser, and Maxus currently dominate the rocket activities at Esrange and support microgravity research for ESA and DLR:
  SSC, jointly with DLR, introduced a new launch service with the Suborbital Express programme launched in 2019. Suborbital Express is now integrating the Maser microgravity programme.
  More than 500 rockets have been launched from Esrange since 1966. For information on individual rockets, see the List of rockets launched from Esrange.
  Esrange has six launchers:
  MAXUS launcher (used for the CASTOR 4B rocket)
  MAN launcher (owned by DLR)
  MRL Launcher (used for the Orion, Nike-Orion, Taurus-Orion, Nike-Black Brant V, Terrier-Black brant rockets)
  Skylark launch tower (used for the VSB 30 rocket)
  FFAR launcher (used for Folding Fin Aircraft Rockets)
  SULO/VIPER launcher (used for Super Loki and VIPER rockets)
caption: Interior of such a shelter
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