The Swedish Space Corporation has successfully launched the first rocket from its newly refurbished Skylark launch tower that was damaged by a fire in 2021.
MAIUS-2 was launched at 07:30 UTC on 2 December aboard a two-stage Brazilian VSB-30 sounding rocket. The rocket reached a maximum altitude of 234 kilometres. The payload was successfully recovered following the conclusion of the mission.
The mission carried a payload for the German space agency DLR, which continued its research into what is known as the Bose-Einstein condensate. The first MAIUS mission, which was launched in 2017, was historic as the first time a condensate was produced in microgravity conditions.
“One conceivable area of use [for this research] could be to build very precise measuring instruments for acceleration,” said Dr. Rebekka Grellmann. “But seen from the perspective of fundamental research, it is about studying the Theory of Relativity and how well it holds up when it comes to quantum physics.”
The MAIUS-2 mission was initially expected to be launched in August 2021. However, a fire at Esrange damaged the Skylark launch tower that was to be utilized for the mission. The fire halted launches not only from the Skylark tower but also from the space center as a whole.
According to the Swedish Space Corporation, the fire was caused after a rocket motor being tested on the ground got loose and set fire to a number of nearby buildings.
MAIUS-2 was the first mission to be conducted from the newly renovated launch tower. A follow-up mission called MAIUS-3 will be launched from the Skylark launch tower in late November 2024.
