Curated By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
Last Updated: April 26, 2023, 12:46 IST
Oslo, Norway/Stockholm, Sweden
The Swedish research rocket landed in Malselv municipality in the northern part of Norway, 10kms away from the closest inhabited area (Image: Unsplash)
The Norwegian foreign ministry said that it takes issues related to unauthorised activity within its borders seriously.
Norway reprimanded Sweden after one of its research rockets malfunctioned and landed in Norwegian territory. The rocket was launched from the Esrange Space Center on Monday at 07:20 local time and then it plunged into a Norwegian mountain range.
The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) apologised for the incident and launched a probe. The SSC runs the Esrange Space Center.
Norway expressed its anger over Sweden failing to formally notify them, news agency BBC reported. The SSC said that the microgravity research rocket reached an altitude of about 250kms and made it into zero gravity.
The SSC has been conducting experiments in that region.
The rocket landed 40 km northwest of the planned landing site. It landed in the Malselv municipality in the northern part of Norway and the closest inhabited area is roughly 10 kms from the accidental landing site.
“It landed in the mountains at 1,000 metres altitude, and 10 kilometres from the closest settlement,” Philip Ohlsson, head of communications at SSC, also told Reuters.
However, no injuries or material damage was reported, the BBC said.
The scientists were also able to recover the payload, which is the scientific instrument onboard the rocket, and brought it back to the Esrange centre by helicopter.
Esrange Space Center’s Marko Kohberg said the centre takes the deviation seriously. “This is a deviation that we take seriously. It is still too early to speculate about the cause, and we await more information from the current investigation,” Kohberg was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Following routine procedure, the SSC reached out to Norwegian and Swedish authorities shortly after the incident.
However, the Norwegian foreign ministry officials were unhappy with the Swedish authorities inability to properly inform them about the rocket’s landing or the recovery of its payload.
The Norwegian authorities made it clear that any unauthorised activity within its borders will be taken seriously, the BBC said.
“When such a border violation occurs, it is crucial that those responsible immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities through the proper channels,” they said.
The Texus-58 rocket used by the Swedish space scientists is part of a European program commissioned by the European Space Agency, the BBC said in its report.
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