Sweden News / Sweden launched rocket for research, accidentally fell in this country

Sweden News: A research rocket launched by the Sweden Space Corp (SSC) from the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden in the early hours of Monday suddenly malfunctioned and fell 15 km (9.32 miles) inside neighboring Norway. The SSC said in a statement that the rocket reached an altitude of 250 km where experiments were carried out in zero gravity. "It crashed in the mountains at an altitude of 1,000 meters and 10 kilometers from the nearest settlement," Philipp Olsson, head of communications at the SSC, told Reuters on Tuesday. He said we had informed the Swedish and Norwegian governments.

An investigation has begun to determine the technical reasons why the incident occurred and efforts are underway to recover the wreckage.

Norwegian criticized

Meanwhile, Norway's Foreign Ministry has taken strong note of the incident and has also accused Sweden of failing to formally report the incident.

"Norwegian authorities take very seriously any unauthorized activity on the Norwegian side of the border," Reuters quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying in an e-mail.

Permission required to retrieve debris

The spokesman said that in case of intrusion at any border, the authorities should be duly informed through the right channels. He said that Sweden did not send any formal information about the incident to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. He further added that prior permission is also required to retrieve the wreckage on Norwegian territory.

The ministry said that it is not aware of whether there has been any damage to the surrounding area due to the crash of the rocket. An SSC spokesperson, however, said the rocket landed far away from human habitation.