Svalbard Rocket Range

78.93111111111111.85Koordinaten: 78 ° 55 ' 52 "N, 11 ° 51' 0" E

SvalRak (short for norway. Svalbard Rakettskyttefelt ) is the name of a launch site for sounding rockets near Ny- Alesund in Svalbard. The establishment of the launch site cost 7.4 million Norwegian kroner. The launch site is ideal for firing of rockets to study the Earth's magnetic field. In addition, he is the only rocket launch site in the world, which was also able to ascend at lunchtime missiles in the dark polar night sky due to its location.

Since November 3, 1997 SvalRak is in operation. On 20 November 1997 raised under the project name " Isbjørn -1" ( German: Polar Bear 1) the first sounding rocket, an Indian RH -300 from, but did not reach the planned level. On the same day " Isbjørn -2" started with a U.S. Viper 3A and became the first successful rocket launch of SvalRak.

The third launch reached on December 2, 1997, a Canadian Black Brant 9, which was launched for NASA, a height of 433 km, exceeding the edge of space.

Already in the fifth start of the SvalRak still valid height record was set when, on 4 December 1997, a two-stage Japanese rocket of the type SS -520 reached a height of 1108 km.