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All Sweden Esrange Esrange Rocket Shelters

Esrange Rocket Shelters

The wilderness of northern Sweden is full of shelters to protect people from sounding rockets returning from space.

Esrange, Sweden

Added By
Henrik Johansson
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One of the shelters.   hrnick / Atlas Obscura User
One of the shelters.   hrnick / Atlas Obscura User
Inside one of the shelters.   hrnick / Atlas Obscura User
A warning sign on a road leading into the impact zone.   hrnick / Atlas Obscura User
On top of one of the shelters.   hrnick / Atlas Obscura User
Inside one of the shelters.   hrnick / Atlas Obscura User
The heater in one of the shelters.   hrnick / Atlas Obscura User
A road leading into the impact zone.   hrnick / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The Esrange Space Center, run by the SSC (the Swedish Space Corporation), is located outside of Kiruna in the northernmost part of Sweden. The land north of it is a huge diamond-shaped area virtually uninhabited by humans. The vast and desolate wasteland makes it the ideal impact area for sounding rockets.

Sounding rockets, also called research rockets, are launched into space in an elliptic trajectory where they experience a few minutes of microgravity, or weightlessness. This is useful for scientific experiments that need to be conducted without the influence of gravity, especially if they need to be recovered quickly.

There's just one catch: Whatever goes up must come down, including the sounding rockets. Although the impact area is uninhabited, there are 34 shelters spread out for the occasional berry picker or hiker who happens to be there when the rocket descends.

This scenario shouldn't happen, though, since all launches are announced online and on the radio, and the roads leading in to the area are closed. But the shelters are there just in case. They are spartan but are equipped with a heater for winter and a radio to receive any message of danger being broadcast from Esrange. So if sounding rockets returning from space start falling from the sky, at least you'd know why.

Related Tags

Space Bunkers Science Space Exploration

Know Before You Go

The Esrange Space Center's shelters are spread out throughout the wilderness of northern Sweden. You can check the SSC homepage for the exact coordinates.

Community Contributors

Added By

hrnick

Published

July 17, 2019

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_rocket
  • https://www.sscspace.com/news-activities/safety/
  • https://www.sscspace.com/services/#launch_services
Esrange Rocket Shelters
Esrange
Sweden
68.676539, 20.841064
Visit Website

Nearby Places

Treriksröset

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Icehotel

Kiruna, Sweden

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Sweden

Sweden

Europe

Places 383
Stories 42

Nearby Places

Treriksröset

Enontekiö, Finland

miles away

Mount Halti Peak

Norway

miles away

Icehotel

Kiruna, Sweden

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Sweden

Sweden

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