Swedish Space Corp. and South Korean rocket company Perigee have teamed up to offer a joint satellite launch service at Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.
SSC owns and operates the space center, which will host its first orbital flight in 2025 with Perigee’s Blue Whale 1 rocket.
Under the partnership, SSC and Perigee will create a shared payload service concept, which will utilize the former’s global satellite ground station network, for the benefit of the customer base of each company.
The Blue Whale 1 rocket is built with the capacity to carry up to 200 kilograms of payload to a sun-synchronous orbit.
Yoon Shin, CEO and founder of Perigee, said the space vehicle will soon be ready for orbital missions. Blue Whale 1 will first perform an orbital launch from South Korea in 2025 before conducting the first deployment from Esrange, he added.
According to Charlotta Sund, CEO of SSC, the partnership will result in a competitive commercial European orbital launch service that meets the demand of both European and international satellite owners.