High-altitude sounding rockets from the Swedish Space Corporation’s (SSC) launch facility at Esrange enable European scientists to, in a simple, fast and low-cost way, carry out experiments in near weightlessness, so called microgravity. Gravity affects many physical, chemical and biological processes and by eliminating all but one ten-thousandth of the gravitational pull (10-4 g), valuable research can be carried out.
The Maxus sounding rocket program offers 12-13 minutes of microgravity using a single stage rocket motor. This is often enough time for scientists to obtain answers to their questions. Occasionally experiments must be carried out over a longer period, i.e. onboard the International Space Station. Sounding rockets are then a cost-effective way to test-fly and secure the technical functions before the costlier flights take place. Our next sounding rocket for microgravity research, Maxus 7, is scheduled to be launched in the early morning of 2 May 2006 from Esrange Space Centre.
Science on board Maxus 7
The payload consists of five individual experiment modules all developed by EADS-ST. Four of the experiments are a continuation of research performed on previous sounding rocket flights from Esrange and one is newly developed. Two experiments are biological, two concern the solidification process of technically relevant metallic alloys and one deals with fundamental physics. More information on the science can be found on SSC’s web site (see below).
EADS-ST and SSC in co-operation
The Maxus sounding rocket program is a joint venture between the Swedish Space Corporation and the German space company EADS-ST. It began in 1989 and the first launch took place in 1991. The Maxus program is financed by ESA and Maxus 7 will carry ESA experiments exclusively.
Swedish competence
SSC started its microgravity program in 1975 and has since then developed over 60 experiment payloads in the fields of material, life, technical, fluid, physical and biological science as well as physical chemistry. More than half of the payloads have been flown onboard sounding rocket vehicles managed by SSC and launched from our launch site at Esrange. A total of more than 500 sounding rockets used for science in various disciplines have been launched from SSC’s launch site since 1966.
The guidance control system used on Maxus 7 has been developed by the Swedish company, Saab Ericsson Space. They have 20 years of specific experience with guidance systems for sounding rockets and have contributed to around 200 launches.
- Read more about Maxus 7 on www.ssc.se
- Read more about microgravity
- Read more about the motor Castor 4B.
For further information please contact:
Gunnar Florin, SSC project manager (technical information)
Tel: +46 980 720 00
Email: gunnar.florin@ssc.se
Wolfgang Herfs, ESA project manager (scientific information)
Tel: +46 980 720 00 (switch board) or +46 980 753 27
Email: wolfgang.herfs@esa.int
Johanna Bergström-Roos, information manager at Esrange, SSC
Tel: +46 (0) 70-544 60 21
Email: johanna.bergström-roos@esrange.ssc.se
The Swedish Space Corporation is a comprehensive space industry. We design, test, launch and operate space systems and develop airborne maritime surveillance systems. From SSC’s Esrange Space Center outside Kiruna we launch sounding rockets and balloons and from here we also operate one of the world’s busiest civilian satellite ground stations. At our engineering center in Solna we develop state-of-the-art satellites, space vehicle subsystems, rocket systems and payloads as well as airborne systems for maritime surveillance. SSC also owns and operates Stockholm Teleport, a ground station for satellite communication services. SSC has about 300 employees.
