On Monday, a Swedish research rocket crashed into a mountainside in Målselv in Troms. The research rocket from Kiruna was supposed to land close to the Norwegian border, but ended up 15 kilometers into Norway. On Tuesday, the rocket was found safe and sound. It has now been transported back to the space center in Kiruna by helicopter, Esrange Space Center writes on its website. Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority had been notified by the Swedish authorities. They take the incident seriously. – This should not happen. It is serious because the rocket entered Norwegian airspace. It could have hit aircraft in the air, buildings or people. There could have been fatal injuries, says Director of the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority, Lars Kobberstad. Press spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ragnhild Håland Simenstad, calls for better information. – When such a border violation occurs, it is crucial that those responsible immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities through the right channels. LANDED IN PARACHUTE: On Tuesday, the rocket was found safe and sound, and it has been transported back to the space center by helicopter, writes Esrange Space Center. Photo: SSC Could not have happened from Norwegian soil The Norwegian space research station Andøya Space assures that something like this could never happen in Norway. – Our rockets are always launched towards the sea, says Ingun Berget, general manager of Andøya Spaceport. General manager of Andøya Spaceport, Ingun Berget. Photo: Per Willy Larsen / news The rockets have a so-called termination system. This means that the rocket can be interrupted in the air by someone on the ground pressing a button. – If the rocket goes in a different direction than planned, it will be told to abort the mission, and fall into the sea, says Berget. That is reassuring, according to the director of aviation. – The consequences will be clearly much smaller at sea than on land, says Kobberstad. Space race Right now, Andøya Spaceport is working on building a large launch base for satellites – and could become Europe’s first spaceport. From here, the first satellite can be launched from Norwegian soil at the end of the year. On the other side of the border, the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden, is working on exactly the same thing. There is now almost a race going on with, among others, the Swedes in Kiruna. And it was precisely from here that a research rocket went astray on Monday morning. – Thought it was a military exercise No people or buildings were hit when the Swedish research rocket landed 15 kilometers into Norway. Just before seven o’clock, Terje Aune in Målselv heard what he describes as a bomb blast. Here the rocket is launched at the Esrange Space Center, which is based in Kiruna in Sweden. It is used for weightlessness research. – I thought it was shooting, he says, and thought it might be a military exercise in Sweden. – What do you think about such a rocket landing incorrectly? When the merchant Terje Aune in the small village of Holt in Målselv came to his shop on Monday, he witnessed the Swedish rocket on its way. Photo: Inger Marie Nordstrøm / news – It will be a disaster. It was a big rocket. – Did you get scared? – No. I thought it was a military exercise. Andøya Space and Andøya Spaceport Photo: Andøya Spaceport Andøya Space formerly Andøya Space Center, formerly Andøya Rocket Launch Field: A center for launching research rockets and releasing scientific balloons. Andøya Space launches sounding rockets and research balloons on Andøya and Svalbard. In addition to launching scientific rockets, the business includes scientific balloons, unmanned aircraft, the Alomar observatory, dissemination of knowledge through Narom and the Aurora spacecraft. Andøya Space Center is in Oksebåsen on Andøya, 5 km southwest of Andenes in Andøy municipality in Nordland county. The facility is also equipped with a number of ground instruments that are used in the exploration of near space. The first rocket from Andøya was called Ferdinand 1, and was launched on 18 August 1962 to study the polar ionosphere. Andøya Space AS is owned 90% by the state at the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries and 10% by Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace, a subsidiary of Kongsberg Gruppen ASA. Andøya Spaceport A commercial launch base for small satellites that orbit the Earth. Andøya Spaceport is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Andøya Space AS group. Sources: Norsk Romsenter, Andøya Space, as of April 2023 Swedish space center investigates the incident The Swedes are now investigating why their rocket changed course. One of the hypotheses is that a rudder fin was damaged quite early on in the journey. It could also be something with the settings in the engine which has meant that it did not center power downwards, but a little to the side. That’s what aerospace journalist Hallvard Sandberg says in news. Here the rocket is launched at Esrange Space Center. Photo: Mattias Forsberg / SSC – It was an extremely large course deviation to manage to end up so far west. Sandberg is not surprised that the reactions from the Norwegian authorities have been so harsh. – Here they have used very strong words. We must remember that there are more than the Swedes who launch rockets in our immediate area. We also have a Russian space base not too far from us. If everything goes as planned, they will launch the first satellite in 2023. Photo: Andøya Spaceport Head of Communications at the Swedish Space Corporation, Philip Ohlsson, tells news that they are now investigating what went wrong. He says that they will not launch any more rockets of this type until they have received an answer. At the same time, he emphasizes that the accident will not affect the work to build a launch base for satellites. – The rockets that launch satellites have a more advanced navigation and communication system on board, he says. This allows them to quickly cancel a launch that does not go as planned. – An investigation is now underway to find out why the rocket went off course and landed in Norway, says Ohlsson. The head of the Esrange Space Center tells news that the Norwegian defense was notified. The last time a rocket from the space research center landed in Norway was in 2012. This is what is meant by a spaceport: A spaceport or cosmodrome is a place for launching (or receiving) spacecraft. Andøya has already launched research rockets and the like for 60 years. But no one has been fast enough to orbit the Earth. The new rockets that will launch from the new launch base will do that. As a result, Norway will have its own spaceport. As of now, there is no such spaceport on the European mainland. The launch base that is used now is, among other things, on French Guiana in South America. Norway is now working hard to be first in the “space race”, i.e. to finish the base before, for example, the Swedes. Andøya Spaceport is right on the coast. Research rockets are already launched here. But soon they can also launch satellites that orbit the Earth.
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Research rocket going astray could never have happened on Andøya – news Nordland
