[Satnews] The TEXUS 53 rocket was successfully launched from Esrange Space Center on January 23, 2016 at 08.30 UTC.

The payload reached an altitude of 252,6 km and the flight was near to perfect with very low disturbances during the whole flight with approximately six minutes of microgravity.

The TEXUS program started in 1977 and is carried out at Esrange Space Center jointly by DLR, Airbus Defence&Space, OBH-System (former EADS Astrium and Kayser Threde) and SSC.

The project

The TEXUS project is a sounding rocket program with the primary aim to investigate the properties and behaviour of materials, chemicals and biological substances in a microgravity environment. The TEXUS program gives around six minutes of microgravity. 

The TEXUS program started in 1977 and is carried out at Esrange Space Center jointly by DLR, Airbus Defence and Space, OBH-System (former EADS Astrium and Kayser Threde) and SSC. SSC is responsible for the launch operations. The TEXUS campaigns are sometimes financed by ESA or jointly financed by DLR and ESA.

More than 500 sounding rockets and 550 stratospheric balloons have been launched from Esrange Space Center. This gives the Center a leading position on the world map of launching facilities. In addition we provide the largest civil ground station for satellites in the world.

Location

Esrange Space Center is located in northern Sweden above the Arctic Circle at lat. 67 degrees 53'N, long 21 degrees 04'E. The town closest to the range is Sweden's principal mining town Kiruna, which is about half an hour away by car. Access to Kiruna is very good with several daily jet flight connections with Stockholm.