This morning, Wednesday 23 November 09:23 AM local time, SubOrbital Express 3 was launched to an altitude of 260 kilometers and six minutes of microgravity. Among the twelve payloads onboard were scientific experiments to investigate everything from stem cells for diabetes research, to particle research that will provide answers about the origin of planets.
“There are plenty of mechanisms that are easier to study in microgravity as gravity often has a strong influence on the research that we work with. This year’s SubOrbital Express campaign has a payload containing twelve experiments from a wide range of disciplines, which could potentially provide answers which are directly significant for life on Earth. It’s wonderful that Sweden and SSC can be part of such important research, says Stefan Krämer, program manager of the mission.
SubOrbital Express 3 is the fifteenth in a series of MASER, “Materials Science Experiment Rocket”, rockets launched from Esrange Space Center since this sounding rocket program started in 1987. ESA is the largest customer of the program, funding several of the experiments onboard.
The rocket and its onboard research and experiments are now being recovered by helicopter. More info will come once the payload is retrieved.
Read more about what is onboard the rocket at https://uat-sscspace.hbgdesignlab.dev/twelve-experiments-to-space-from-sweden/
A live transmission of the launch was also made by Swedish television SVT: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/norrbotten/se-nar-tyngdlosa-raketen-skjuts-upp-i-kiruna
