SSC Space has more than fifty years of experience in helping space agencies, companies, commercial actors and research institutes gain access to space. The company designs, develops and tests various types of payloads and space systems; rocket systems, subsystems and experimental equipment for research, in space or near-space environments. Common areas of application are microgravity experiments, atmospheric research and testing and validation of space-related systems. These projects are launched onboard sounding rockets or stratospheric balloons from the company's space center in northern Sweden, Esrange Space Center.
SSC Space has one of the world's largest and most active civilian networks of ground stations that communicate with various types of satellites. SSC Space worldwide network of ground stations uses the group's own as well as contracted satellite stations around the world. SSC Space has its own ground stations in Sweden, the U.S., Canada, Chile, Thailand and Australia. The company also has partnering ground stations in the U.S., Germany, Italy, Spain, Latvia, South Africa, Antarctica, India and Japan.
Most scientific satellites, as well as many Earth observation satellites, orbit the Earth's poles. The strategic locations of Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden, Inuvik in Canada, and North Pole in Alaska, in the northern hemisphere, allow for regular contact with satellites as they pass within range several times a day. Esrange is today one of the world's most used satellite stations.
Via a selection of ground stations with specific capabilities, SSC Space offers communication links between Earth and lunar and deep-space spacecraft. Past missions include Firefly Aerospace’s historic Blue Ghost Mission-1 (BGM1) in 2025, as well as the Indian Space Agency (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission in 2023-24.
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Spacecraft operations
Through the company's subsidiaries LSE Space in Germany, Spain and Italy, as well as Aurora Technology in the Netherlands, SSC offers consulting services in spacecraft control. The majority of this personnel is stationed at some of Europe's largest space missions operations centers – such as the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), and the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) – owned and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Satellite (orbital) launch
At Esrange Space Center, owned and operated by SSC Space, a new facility was inaugurated on 13 January 2023 by H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. This will be the first facility on EU mainland with the ability to launch satellites into orbit, with a first satellite launch expected to take place in a few years' time, with U.S. company Firefly Aerospace's rocket Alpha, and later on South Korean company Perigee Aerospace's rocket BlueWhale-1.
Rocket testing
Esrange Space Center is also housing several testbed facilities where European rocket companies are developing new rocket models through motor tests and rocket reuse demonstrations; Isar Aerospace conducting motor tests of their rocket Spectrum, Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) on their rocket RFA One as well as Europe’s program for the development of reusable rockets, Themis, which is run by Ariane Group on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), set for a first hop-test in 2026.
Space Situational Awareness
The number of satellites in near-Earth space is expected to reach nearly 10,000 within the next few years. In that same area of space, large amounts of space debris are also in orbit. It is estimated to be more than 130 million objects, some as small as a millimeter, traveling at high speed around the Earth.
The increasing number of objects in orbit around the Earth increases the risk of collisions. SS Space is therefore expanding its initiative in the area of Space Situational Awareness (SSA), which aims to detect, predict and assess the risks of spacecraft launches and re-entry.
SSC Space runs a program whose task is to track and catalog the objects in orbit around the Earth – so-called Space Traffic Management (STM) – a communication system to avoid potential collisions during launch and for satellites in orbit in the future.
Other facilities and places of business
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Solna (headquarters and payload development center)
Esrange Space Center, Kiruna (launch and test services and satellite communications)
Ågesta (teleport services)
North Pole, Alaska, USA (satellite station)
Clewiston, Florida, USA (satellite station)
Spring House, Pennsylvania, USA (office and Network Management Center)
South Point, Hawaii, USA (satellite station)
Inuvik, Canada (satellite station)
Wescott, UK (office)
Darmstadt, Germany (office)
Gilching, Germany (office)
Noordwijk, Netherlands (office)
Pisa, Italy (office)
Tokyo, Japan (office)
Santiago, Chile (office and satellite station)
Punta Arenas, Chile (satellite station)
Siracha, Thailand (satellite station)
Western Australia Space Center, Australia (office and satellite station)
