15 new satellite service missions
SSC will support six new satellite missions from its satellite station at Esrange Space Center during 2010. Most satellites have a scientific objective and they are owned by customers from all over the world. SSC provides satellites services such as ground control, routine support and reception of scientific data or satellite images.

Prisma, Sweden's next satellite mission (two satellites) is planned to be launched in March from Yasny in Russia and will have a ground station placed at Esrange Space Center. Prisma is developed and built by SSC on behalf of the Swedish National Space Board and has the objective to develop and qualify new technology necessary for future science missions in space. We will soon send out more information about the upcoming launch of Prisma.

Satellite services at SSC have been growing steadily since the first satellite operation contract in 1978. During 2009 four new antennas were installed at Esrange to secure the accessibility to our ground communication systems. In total we now have more than 20 antennas for satellite missions up and running at Esrange Space Center.

SSC also offers reliable solutions for satellite operations world wide. Besides operating the busiest civil ground station in the world at Esrange Space Center, SSC also give their customers access to a global network of ground stations in strategic locations around the world, PrioraNet. In total SSC will support many more satellites than the fifteen mentioned above.

For the moment Esrange Space Center is involved in more than thirty different satellite operations and you can read more about some of them on Current activities.

17 balloon missions
From February to October this year 17 large balloons will be launched throughout four international balloon campaigns. The campaigns are carried out on behalf of scientists and students from universities and institutes in Europe, Japan and USA. Most of the balloon flights have the aim to conduct scientific measurements in the atmosphere such as studies of ozone loss, trace gases or phenomena linked to changes in our atmosphere.

Simultaneously there will be measurements from our ground based instruments at Esrange Space Center and from aeroplanes stationed at the large hangar Arena Arctica at Kiruna Airport.

One of the scientific teams is lead by Swedish scientists and they are working with a project called PoGoLite ("light-weight Polarised Gamma-ray Observer"). The team is lead by Mark Pearce, professor of physics at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology and the team is collaborating with science teams from the U.S. and Japan.

PoGoLite will open a new window to Universe by sending up a telescope, carried up to 40 km altitude by a large stratospheric balloon from Esrange Space Center. By measuring the polarization of gamma-rays (photons with very high energies), the research team will study neutron stars, active galactic nuclei and black holes.

Initially, the research team has applied for funds to realize a first flight in the summer of 2010, and there will hopefully be several more flights during a few years to come.

Thanks to the possibility of lifting large and heavy experiments with balloons from Esrange, and have them flying for several days, Swedish scientists can break new grounds with these measurements", says Mark Pearce. "This is a fantastic opportunity for Sweden to take a leading role in a new branch of astrophysics", Pearce adds.

Four rocket missions
First out are two student rocket campaigns planned for March, REXUS 7 and 8. European university students will fly their own experiments designed and built within their university studies.

Two microgravity rockets will be launched during 2010. The provided microgravity time differs between 3 and 13 minutes depending on the rocket motor used. The first flight, MAXUS 8, Europe's largest sounding rocket planned for March will carry experiments developed by SSC amongst others, and the second, MAPHEUS-2, a German national rocket programme will be launched in May.

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