Sweden. Swedish Space Corporation

The loan has been provided for the modernisation of the Esrange Space Centre in Kiruna, northern Sweden. The purpose of the investment is to turn Esrange into Europe’s most advanced space centre, with the ambition of meeting the increasing demand for access to space and space science. The total cost of the project is set at SEK 295 million.

The Esrange Space Centre, located near Kiruna in northern Sweden, is the company’s key asset. The centre provides launches of sounding rockets and high altitude balloons for microgravity, atmospheric and astrophysics research. Located inside the Arctic Circle, Esrange has one of the world’s most active civilian satellite ground stations, which daily communicates with 140 polar orbiting scientific and observation satellites. Esrange is part of Swedish Space Corporation’s worldwide satellite communication network. SSC also has ground stations in the United States, Chile and Australia.

The Swedish Space Corporation, a state-owned company, founded in 1972, provides specialised competence in space systems, space and satellite operations, rocket and balloon systems, launch services as well as flight test services. The company has about 550 employees worldwide.

The investment project is likely to increase the quality and productivity of the company’s services and secure the company’s operations over the coming years. The project also supports the company’s longer-term strategy to broaden its product range in satellite launches. Services to and cooperation with academic organisations and companies in the aerospace industry will support knowledge accumulation in the space technology sector.

The potential negative impact of the project is minor. Most of the physical work will be done in the existing facilities. The company adheres to the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance in accordance with the ownership policy of the Swedish government.