Sweden launches a research missile that accidentally hits Norway

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A research rocket launched by the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) early on Monday from the Isrange Space Center in northern Sweden malfunctioned and fell 15 km into neighboring Norway.

The agency said the missile reached an altitude of 250 km (155.34 miles), where the tests were carried out in zero gravity. a permit.

“I landed in the mountains at an altitude of 1,000 meters and ten kilometers from the nearest settlement,” Philip Olsson, head of communications at SSC, told Reuters on Tuesday.

He said there are routines in place for when things go wrong and we inform the Swedish and Norwegian governments and other actors.

The agency said work is underway to retrieve the payload, and an investigation is under way to determine the technical details behind the unplanned flight path.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said via email that “Norwegian authorities take any unauthorized activity on the Norwegian side of the border very seriously.”

The spokesperson said that if there is any breach of the border, officials are required to report it to the relevant Norwegian authorities, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the correct channels.

She added that the ministry had not received an official notification of the incident from the Swedish authorities.

The spokesperson said that working on Norwegian territory to salvage any wreck also required prior approval.

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of whether there was any damage in the surrounding areas, while a spokesman for the Supreme Security Committee said the missile landed far from any settlement.

The Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Subanta Mukherjee and Marie Mannes in Stockholm) Editing by Tomasz Janowski

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.