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.
“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.
“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.
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.
About Perigee Aerospace
Perigee Aerospace is a space startup that develops the most efficient and economical space launch vehicle for small satellites and provides launch services. Blue Whale 1, a small space launch vehicle with a length of 21 m, a diameter of 1.6 m, and a take-off mass of 20 tons, is equipped with Perigee Aerospace's unique low-cost, high-performance liquid methane rocket engine technology, low-cost lightweight carbon composite airframe structure technology, and low-cost, high-reliability flight control system technology. It is being developed based on this and is scheduled for test launch in 2024. Since its establishment in 2018, with its headquarters in Daejeon, it has branches in the Rocket Development Complex in Okcheon, North Chungcheong Province, Seoul, and Jeju. In particular, it is taking the lead in expanding the global space market through the Jeju sea launch as well as in truly localizing space launch services.
Source: SSC
