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Spaceport Sweden today entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with officials from the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) to align with Spaceport America as ‘Sister Spaceports’. Working in collaboration, the two spaceports will increase global cooperation in the commercial space industry, promote cultural understanding and stimulate local economic development, tourism and education.

Located in Kiruna, in the northern parts of Sweden, Spaceport Sweden has a mission similar to that of Spaceport America. Both spaceports are working with Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial space line, aiming to enable aspiring space travelers to realize their dreams of experiencing space. Virgin recently entered into a 20-year lease agreement to build their global headquarters at New Mexico’s spaceport. They are also planning to launch from Spaceport Sweden, as a complement in Europe, with a completely different approach. It will be space campaigns in the land of the midnight sun in the summer and the northern light in the winter, with unique tourist activities in a vast nature of wilderness staying at the famous ICEHOTEL. Virgin also chose Spaceport Sweden as it has a history of space exploration since more than 50 years. At Esrange Space Center you find a launch pad for sounding rockets, high-altitude research balloons, and test facilities for new aerospace systems as well as the world’s busiest civil ground station for satellites. All run by the Swedish Space Corporation.

“Spaceport Sweden is well on track, and working with Spaceport America, we feel we can continue to make great progress on regulatory issues and forward our business processes,” said Bengt Jaegtnes, Vice Chairman of Spaceport Sweden. “Our relationship to Spaceport America is important as we all work toward the goal of developing the commercial space industry.” Jaegtnes and his team attended the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) at New Mexico State University in 2007 and 2008, where the relationship between the two spaceports began and culminated in this collaboration.

NMSA Executive Director Steve Landeene is excited about the explosive growth of the commercial space industry, and the prospect of working with Spaceport Sweden. “The Swedish Space Corporation and Spaceport Sweden are currently executing missions, and it’s exciting to see increasing interest and activity all over the globe for commercial spaceflight,” he said. “This MOU means that both spaceports can work together to develop and promote the commercial space industry.”

Virgin Galactic last week announced its plans to select a small number of Scandinavia’s elite travel professionals to act as its representatives across the region. Having Accredited Space Agents in Scandinavia means greater local expertise in this field and will add a valuable extra dimension to realize the global potential of commercials space flights. 

 
For further enquiries and information on Spaceport Sweden please contact:
Johanna Bergström-Roos, Information Manager at Spaceport Sweden and Esrange Space Center (Swedish Space Corporation)
Phone: +46 980 720 24 or +46 70 544 60 21
E-mail: johanna.bergstrom-roos@ssc.se