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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Daniel Boffey in the Esrange Space Center, northern Sweden

Hidden in the Arctic, Sweden is quietly winning Europe’s next big space race

A rocket launches from Esrange Space Center
The Esrange Space Center lies among vast forests of pine and birch in the northernmost part of Sweden, 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Photograph: Mattias Forsberg/SSC

First place is “nice but it’s not necessary”, says Stefan Gustafsson, a senior official at the Sweden Space Corporation (SSC), with a telling chortle. “Other actors are more aiming to be first. Naturally, I think we will be.”

It was an unconvincing show of magnanimity. There is a space race on, a British rival has already spectacularly fallen by the wayside, and the Swedes have every intention of winning.

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