Kiruna Airport Hopes To Offer Horizontal And Vertical Launches From The Arctic Circle

About 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle is the Swedish town of Kiruna, whose international airport offers flights to London and Tokyo. But if the plans of Spaceport Sweden come to fruition, the town could be the site of vertical and horizontal commercial space launches.

Established in 2007, Spaceport Sweden would like to offer flights within 10 years, according to a report from the French news service AFP relayed by Discovery News online. The company's director, Karin Nilsdotter, said that their goal is to establish both space tourism and research flights from Sweden.

Nilsdotter said that the remote location makes Kiruna ideal for commercial space activities. There is not a lot of commercial traffic, and the area is not densely populated. It is also well within Sweden's borders, so that international "bureaucratic red tape" would be far less of an issue.

But like so many of America's designated spaceports, Spaceport Sweden is still in search of an anchor tenant, though Nilsdotter hinted that it was working with a company that is building a spacecraft. She did not say which company that was, but Virgin Glalactic's SpaceShipTwo is featured prominently in their YouTube videos.

There is a nearby launch center in the town of Esrange, which launches about four rockets a year. They are not participating in the Spaceport Sweden effort "because we're not about creating adventure," said the site's director Lennart Poramaa. Still, he acknowledged that there will be commercial spaceflight and space tourism in the future, and that Esrange could possible "help in the field of research."

(Artist's concept of Spaceport Sweden)

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