Norway questions Sweden’s plan to launch orbital rockets from Esrange spaceport
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
In the capitalist competition between Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom to establish Europe’s prime launch site, Norway’s government has now issued a long study questioning Sweden’s plan to launch orbital rockets from its Esrange spaceport, since polar launches heading north from there will have to cross Norway.
You can read the report here [pdf]. For Esrange to conduct orbital launches it will need the permission of Norway for each launch, and it appears Norway is not satisfied with Sweden’s assessments that say launches can occur safely. The report concludes:
Norway recommends that the relevant Norwegian authorities conduct an assessment of the risks a launch will pose to the people in Norway and Norwegian interests, and determine whether this risk is acceptable, taking into account the interests and safety of the Norwegian people and the severity of the risk.
…Due to the significant economic costs associated with the impact on oil and gas production in
the Barents Sea, CAA Norway recommends that no launches be permitted in areas where there
is any risk to Norwegian oil and gas installations.
The release of this report illustrates Norway’s geographic advantages. The German rocket startup Isar is gearing up to do its first launch from Norway’s new spaceport, Andoya, possibly before the end of this month. It will have a clear path to space. Meanwhile, the American rocket startup Firefly, which wants to launch from Esrange, faces serious regulatory hurdles from neighboring countries, like Norway, because any rocket must fly over their territories.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
In the capitalist competition between Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom to establish Europe’s prime launch site, Norway’s government has now issued a long study questioning Sweden’s plan to launch orbital rockets from its Esrange spaceport, since polar launches heading north from there will have to cross Norway.
You can read the report here [pdf]. For Esrange to conduct orbital launches it will need the permission of Norway for each launch, and it appears Norway is not satisfied with Sweden’s assessments that say launches can occur safely. The report concludes:
Norway recommends that the relevant Norwegian authorities conduct an assessment of the risks a launch will pose to the people in Norway and Norwegian interests, and determine whether this risk is acceptable, taking into account the interests and safety of the Norwegian people and the severity of the risk.
…Due to the significant economic costs associated with the impact on oil and gas production in
the Barents Sea, CAA Norway recommends that no launches be permitted in areas where there
is any risk to Norwegian oil and gas installations.
The release of this report illustrates Norway’s geographic advantages. The German rocket startup Isar is gearing up to do its first launch from Norway’s new spaceport, Andoya, possibly before the end of this month. It will have a clear path to space. Meanwhile, the American rocket startup Firefly, which wants to launch from Esrange, faces serious regulatory hurdles from neighboring countries, like Norway, because any rocket must fly over their territories.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Norwegians have a legitimate concern given that about 20% of their oil and gas production areas are in the Barents Sea and roughly 3/4 of this appears to fall along likely azimuths for polar and sun synchronous orbital launches from Esrange.
But Esrange has been used for years as a launch site for suborbital rockets of various kinds. If the Norwegians have, in the past, allowed territorial overflight by these, then the validity of their current complaint diminishes greatly. But if Esrange has been supporting the same sort of straight-up-and-down suborbital trajectories as, say, New Shepard flies in West Texas, then the Norwegian case would be far stronger. In that case, Firefly may find it has backed the wrong horse.
Underlying thought.
Launching “rockets” into space has long been a statement of nuclear weapons delivery capability. That was the main reason why the The Soviet Union’s launch of SPUTNIK was so terrifying. Even in ’62 as a seven yr old, when I first understood what my parents were talking about this during the Cuban Missile Crisis SPUTNIK was still referred to with considerable fear.
NATO does not DO nuclear Weapons. However the Sovereign Nation of Sweden can make a statement to the effect, “SO you have ICBMS? We can build them and launch them too..”
That could easily be an under current here. IF that is the case, (and that is a mighty big IF brother), then polar launches are not all that to worry about. Russia is EAST of Esrange.
Andrew M Winter: The fear of ICBM attack following Sputnik in the 1950s is correct. It doesn’t apply at all to the new spaceports in Norway, Sweden, or the UK. These are being built for private companies to rent and use, not for these nations to launch their own rockets or missiles.
Neither Norway nor Sweden is building rockets. Their spaceports thus pose no threat from them.
Andrew M Winter: NATO certainly does “do” nuclear weapons. The US, Britain and France all have nukes.
But no one launches ICBMs from above-ground pads anymore. Even the Russians realized that to be a non-starter and the R-7 was quickly taken off nuclear weapons delivery duty and reassigned to its now-decades-long career as a satellite deployer.
No one, including the Russians, is going to mistake either Esrange or Andoya as military facilities. The objection of the Norwegians is to the possible dropping of launch debris originating at Esrange onto its Barents Sea oil/gas infrastructure – a perfectly legitimate concern.
All that Esrange has done so far has been suborbital stuff — sounding rockets. As far as I can make out, they’ve all come back down in Swedish territory.
Sweden has been publicly working to make it an *orbital* launch site for over four years now, and I have long been curious why the Norwegians weren’t making more of a fuss about it. Well, now they are. But presumably there have been serious non-public discussions going on (thus, Norway’s study), and the Norwegians have finally decided that these weren’t addressing their concerns. Which is another way of saying that Dick’s last sentence is a sound observation.
It sounds like there could be a way to resolve Norway’s concerns without abandoning all hope of orbital launches. But Dick may be right that the real problem could be that the resolution will not be one that Firefly can live with. Hard to say without knowing more.