Originally, the space centre planned to launch the first person into space already in 2012. However, due to the last years’ world economic slowdown, the plans have been postponed to 2016, project manager Karin Nilsdotter told Swedish Radio.
Over the last years, an EU supported project has helped the space centre develop its plans for space tourism.
Nilsdotter says technology is under development for commercial space tourism. The company is cooperating with the US. Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline.
Virgin Galactic remains very interested in cooperating with the Kiruna space centre, Nilsdotter underlines. The US company is currently in the process of building a 200 million USD spaceport in the southern part of the New Mexico.
The Esrange Space Center is located 45 km east of the town of Kiruna. It is owned by the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), which has been offering suborbital flights to the scientific community for more than 40 years, the SSC website informs.
Read more about the Esrange Space Center at Spaceportsweden.com
