The Svalbard Rocket Range or SvalRak as it is named, is a

launch site A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport'', and even more so ''cosmodrome'', has traditionally been used for sites capable ...

for

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...

s at

Ny-Ålesund Ny-Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is a small town in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula (Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned ...

in Svalbard, Norway. The site has been in use since 1997 and is owned by

Andøya Space Center Andøya is the northernmost island in the Vesterålen archipelago, situated about inside the Arctic circle. Andøya is located in Andøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The main population centres on the island include the villages of ...

, which is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and the

Kongsberg Group Kongsberg Gruppen is an international technology group headquartered in Norway, that supplies high-technology systems to customers in the merchant marine, defence, aerospace, offshore oil and gas industries, and renewable and utilities industr ...

. SvalRak's location at the

79th parallel north The 79th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 79 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, in the Arctic. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia, the Arctic Ocean and North America. At this latitude the sun is visible for ...

makes it well-suited for launching rockets to investigate

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magneti ...

. It is used mostly by American, Japanese and Norwegian researchers. It is the world's northernmost launch site.

History

Planning of a launch site in Ny-Ålesund started in 1993, a location chosen because of its ideal location to study the polar cusp. Construction of the site started in the summer of 1997. The

Norwegian Institute for Air Research The NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research ( no, NILU – Norsk Institutt for luftforskning) or NILU is one of the leading specialized scientific laboratories in Europe researching issues related to air pollution, climate change and healt ...

, which conducts air measurements in Ny-Ålesund, was concerned that the rockets could pollute their measurements. A test rocket was launched on 15 November. The first proper launch was an Indian Rohini RH-300 MkII sounding rocket purchased from

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman o ...

and christened ''Isbjørn 1 (Polar Bear 1)''. This rocket contained instruments from

University Centre in Svalbard The University Centre in Svalbard ( no, Universitetssenteret på Svalbard AS; UNIS) is a Norwegian state-owned limited company that is involved in research and provides some higher education in Arctic studies. The company is wholly owned by the ...

, the

University of Tromsø The University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway ( Norwegian: ''Universitetet i Tromsø – Norges arktiske universitet''; Northern Sami: ''Romssa universitehta – Norgga árktalaš universitehta'') is a state university in Norway ...

and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. The rocket had a

payload Payload is the object or the entity which is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of ...

of and reached altitude. It was followed by two

Black Brant The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after t ...

rockets for the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding ...

which reached an altitude of . SvalRak originally held permission to fire four rockets every two years. Forty-one rockets had been launched by 2004, with a peak altitude of . The site was upgraded in 2018.

Use

SvalRak is the world's northernmost rocket launch site, and is located at the 79th parallel north. This makes it an ideal location for sending instruments into Earth's magnetic field and the polar cups, cleft and cup. It is also used for studying the Magnetopause and

aurora borealis An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

, for which Ny-Ålesund is the most convenient location because of its ease of access. It is owned by Andøya Space Center, which is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (90 percent) and the Kongsberg Group (10 percent). SvalRak has no permanent staff in Ny-Ålesund. The main users are American, Japanese and to a less extent Norwegian scientists.

References

{{coord, 78, 55, 53, N, 11, 51, 01, E, type:landmark_region:SJ, display=title Rocket launch sites in Norway Norwegian Space Centre Kongsberg Gruppen Ny-Ålesund 1997 establishments in Norway Science and technology in Svalbard