SSC and South Korean rocket company Perigee Aerospace Inc. have signed a collaborative agreement to launch satellites jointly from Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden, starting 2025. Perigee’s Blue Whale 1 microlauncher will be the first-ever orbital rocket launched from Esrange. The two-stage launch vehicle has the capacity to place up to 200 kg into a 500 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit. Together, SSC and Perigee will develop a service concept with a shared payload space onboard the rocket to make room for both companies’ customer bases. Enforced by SSC’s global satellite ground station network, this service could also be supplemented by additional space-to-ground services.
“SSC has an impressive 50 years of launch heritage and the new orbital launch infrastructure at Esrange is laying the foundation for the years to come. By bringing our Blue Whale 1 rocket, soon ready for orbital missions, we will partner with SSC to create a state-of-the-art orbital launch service, including further delivery through SSC’s ground service offering. After a successful orbital launch from South Korea next year, we look forward to beginning this historic journey at Esrange,” says Yoon Shin, CEO and Founder of Perigee.
“I’m very pleased to announce this historic collaboration, our first orbital launch partnership. The market demand for this service is huge and it’s needed now, by both European and international satellite owners. Perigee’s Blue Whale 1 rocket is an ideal match for our orbital launch complex at Esrange. With this partnership, SSC will be able to offer a competitive commercial European orbital launch service at our spaceport in Sweden. This is exciting news for us, and for the global space market,” says Charlotta Sund, CEO of SSC.
Perigee Aerospace is a private developer and manufacturer of orbital and sub-orbital launch vehicles located in Daejeon, South Korea. The company was formally established in 2018, but work began in 2012, initially with the launch of sounding rockets. As of 2019, Perigee Aerospace employed 30 people. It develops the small orbital rocket Blue Whale 1. As of 2019, the company also planned to develop a larger rocket.
SSC is a global provider of advanced space services. The company develop experiment payloads and provide rocket and balloon launch services at our unique facility Esrange Space Center. SSC also offer reliable access to satellites through our global network of ground stations. SSC covers the global market through its offices in Sweden, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, USA, Chile, Australia and Thailand, along with the global network of ground stations. SSC was founded in 1972 and has appr 600 employees.
