The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the French Space agency (CNES) have become partners by signing a contract on acquiring and owning two new 13 meter full-motion antennas for satellite operations together. The antennas will be placed at two different ground station sites, fully or partly owned and operated by SSC; the Esrange Satellite Station in northern Sweden (68*N, 21*E) and the Inuvik Satellite Station in Canada (68*N, 133*W).

The two stations are strategically located near the North Pole and are the latest contribution within PrioraNet, SSC’s worldwide network of ground stations for satellite communication. The two new antennas enable CNES to have frequent contact with their satellites placed in polar orbits.

Mikael Stern, General Manager, Satellite Operations Division at SSC, explains that “by building up a long duration partnership with CNES, a most prominent space agency, we strengthen our position as the leading commercial satellite operator in the world”.

Jean-Marc Soula, Senior Advisor for Ground Network Operations at CNES says that “we have been working together with SSC since many years and we know that we are dealing with an experienced and reliable partner. By signing this partnership we certain the communication chain to our satellites in orbit and strengthen the quality of our satellite missions”.

CNES has by this contract access to parts of the antenna capacity and SSC will sell the rest of the “free time” to other satellite owners in need of ground stations on high latitude. The contract is signed for the twelve coming years.

For further information please contact

Mikael Stern, General Manager
Satellite Operations Division, Swedish Space Corporation
Tel: +46 (0)8 627 63 86 or +46 705 666 555
E-mail: mikael.stern@ssc.se

Gwenaelle Verpeau or Julien Watelet,
CNES press department
Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 76 74 04
Email: cnes-press@cnes.fr

Swedish Space Corporation – a general contractor in space and aerospace

Swedish Space designs, tests, launches and operates space and aerospace systems. SSC operations consists of five business units located in Stockholm, Kiruna and Vidsel. In Stockholm SSC develops satellites, space vehicle subsystems and payloads for sounding rockets as well as airborne systems for maritime surveillance. SSC owns a Teleport, that provides satellite communication services in Stockholm. At the Esrange Space Center, east of Kiruna, SSC launches sounding rockets and balloons and operates one of the world’s busiest satellite ground stations. SSC also owns a satellite ground station in Chile, Santiago Satellite Station. Through the North European Aerospace Test range – NEAT at the Vidsel Test Range, SSC is involved in testing various air and space vehicles.

SSC owns several subsidiary companies; LSE, a German company that provides engineering and satellite operation services. USN, a US-based company that provides space operation services, ECAPS a Swedish company that develops and manufactures “green” propulsion systems and NanoSpace a Swedish company that develops micromechanical systems for space applications.

The Swedish Space Corporation group has 600 employees.