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Credit: SSC Space<\/p>\n Credit: SSC Space<\/p>\n
SSC Space has officially opened the Esrange Space Center\u2019s new Orbital Launch Control Center, which will be used to manage future rocket launches from the facility.<\/p>\n
The Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden has hosted suborbital rocket launches since the 1960s. In October 2020, the Swedish government and the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), now known as SSC Space, which operates the facility, announced plans to establish an orbital launch capability at Esrange. Just over two years later, in January 2023, the site was officially inaugurated.<\/p>\n
On 18 February 2026, three years after the facility was officially inaugurated, SSC Space announced the establishment of the facility\u2019s new Orbital Launch Control Center (OLCC). The OLCC will be used to oversee launch operations for orbital missions from Esrange, including vehicle monitoring, countdown procedures, and coordination with range safety and airspace authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge to work on a project that interfaces so many different systems and aspects of an orbital launch,\u201d says Leo Helmersson Hobbs, OLCC Project Manager. \u201cIt involves a wide range of people across our own organization as well as our launch vehicle partners, all learning from each other in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the establishment of the OLCC is a significant milestone, Hobbs admits that it is just one \u201camong many others required to establish a spaceport with orbital launch capability.\u201d The 18 February SSC Space announcement likewise admitted that the first orbital launch from the facility \u201cmay still be some way off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The launch manifest<\/p>\n
The first vehicle to utilise the new facility will be the European Space Agency\u2019s Themis reusable rocket demonstrator, conducting suborbital flights. As part of the European Commission\u2019s SALTO programme, Esrange will host the demonstrator\u2019s initial low-altitude hop tests, a campaign expected to begin imminently after ESA announced in late 2025 that it was waiting for spring conditions<\/a> to commence testing.<\/p>\n In addition to low-altitude test flights, an upgraded variant of the demonstrator known as Themis T1E will conduct medium-altitude test flights from Esrange. ESA announced this additional testing phase with an award of \u20ac230 million to ArianeGroup across two contracts<\/a> in November 2024.<\/p>\n Over and above Themis, Esrange has secured commitments from two international rocket builders interested in conducting launches from the orbital launch facility.<\/p>\n In May 2024, South Korea\u2019s Perigee Aerospace signed an agreement<\/a> to become the facility\u2019s first orbital launch partner, with plans to conduct flights of its Blue Whale 1 rocket from Esrange. At the time, SSC Space said the first Blue Whale 1 flight from the site was expected no earlier than 2025, following a successful inaugural launch of the rocket from a facility in South Korea. However, with that inaugural flight yet to take place, it is unclear when a mission from the Swedish launch site will occur.<\/p>\n