- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- China stocks rally fizzles on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- China stocks rally peters out on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- China holds off on fresh stimulus but 'confident' will hit growth target
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case faces verdict in sex crimes trial
- Top economic official 'confident' China will hit 2024 growth target
- COP29 fight looms over climate funds for developing world
- Shanghai stocks soar to extend stimulus rally amid Asia-wide drop
- Will Tesla's robotaxi reveal live up to hype?
- 'Invisibility' and quantum computing tipped for physics Nobel
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
RBGPF | -2.48% | 59.33 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.28% | 24.64 | $ | |
BCC | 0.24% | 142.365 | $ | |
SCS | 2.29% | 13.08 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.11% | 24.8248 | $ | |
BTI | 0.42% | 35.37 | $ | |
NGG | -0.6% | 65.51 | $ | |
RIO | -0.94% | 66.04 | $ | |
GSK | 0.24% | 38.11 | $ | |
JRI | 0.24% | 13.191 | $ | |
RELX | -0.1% | 46.595 | $ | |
BP | -0.69% | 31.81 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.01% | 6.9 | $ | |
BCE | -0.19% | 33.445 | $ | |
AZN | 0.03% | 76.89 | $ | |
VOD | 0.23% | 9.682 | $ |
Sweden inaugurates new satellite launch site
Just days after a failed UK satellite launch, Sweden inaugurated Friday its new launching site as the race heats up to be first country to send satellites into orbit from the European continent.
Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson cut the ribbon during a ceremony at "Spaceport Esrange", described as "mainland Europe's first satellite launch complex".
"There are many good reasons why we need to accelerate the European Space Programme," von der Leyen said. "Europe has its foothold in space and will keep it."
The site is an extension of the Esrange Space Centre in Sweden's Arctic, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the town of Kiruna.
Around 15 million euros ($16.3 million) have been invested in the site, which is expected to serve as a complement to Europe's space hub at Kourou in French Guiana.
It will also provide launch capabilities at a time when cooperation with Russia and the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan has been curtailed by the war in Ukraine.
Esrange's state-owned operator, the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), aims to launch its first satellite from the site "in the first quarter of 2024", a spokesman told AFP on Friday.
That would make Sweden the first country in continental Europe -- excluding Russia -- to send up a satellite from its soil.
Other European spaceports are also in the race.
Projects in Portugal's Azores archipelago, Norway's Andoya island, Spain's Andalusia and Britain, among others, are all vying to be the first to succeed.
Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), a German specialist in smaller launchers that are increasingly used by countries and firms sending more compact satellites into space, said recently its first launch would take place at SaxaVord in the Shetland Islands at the end of 2023.
An attempt to launch the first rocket into orbit from Britain -- on a Virgin Orbit Boeing 747 that took off from a spaceport in Cornwall -- ended in failure on Tuesday.
The satellite industry is booming, with the number of satellites in operation in 2040 expected to reach 100,000, the SSC said, compared to 5,000 now.
With a reusable rocket project called Themis, Esrange will also host the European Space Agency's tests of rockets able to land back on Earth, similar to those used by SpaceX, one of the company's owned by the billionaire Elon Musk.
C.Smith--CPN