Kiruna station

Location
In 2015,the site located in Sweden is equipped with two antennas

Kiruna 1 : +67° 51' 25.66" N, +20° 57' 51.57" E

Kiruna 2: +67 ° 51' 30.34" N, 20 ° 58' 00.77" E

Origin
In 1986, ESA and the Kingdom of Sweden agreed to establish tracking, telemetry and telecommand facilities, the ESA Kiruna Station, in the region of Salmijärvi, Kiruna.

In the agreement Sweden has designated Swedish Space Corporation performing the executive functions, Maintenance & Operations.

H.M. the King of Sweden inaugurated ESA Kiruna Station 6th September 1990. The Kingdom of Sweden guarantees the site until year 2047.

Total leased land area of the site is 202 580 m 2.

The Station was taken into operations at the launch of ERS-1 in July 1991. There was 25 contractor staff performing the M&O.

In 2015, 8 SSC contractor staff is working permanently at the station

Technical Evolution
Beginning of 1988 the preparations for ERS-1 started. The station was designed as the prime for S-band tracking, telemetry reception and telecommanding, X-band payload data reception, processing and distribution of fast delivery products. MBB/Krupp built the 15-meter antenna and the contractor for the baseband equipment was Bell Telephone (BTM).

In 1993 a GPS station (GPS-TDAF) was deployed at the station to provide accurate geodesy services. In 2006 the Galileo Experimental Sensor Station (GESS) was installed at the station.

In 1994 the station was upgraded for ERS-2 support and for tandem operations with ERS-1.

In 1998-2002 the ENVISAT X-band payload data reception, processing and distribution equipment was installed at the Station. The computer equipment, configured for parallel processing of the scientific data, was state of the art delivered mainly by IBM.

In 2000 a 13-meter antenna, was installed at the site. The antenna has S-band receive/transmit and X-band reception capability. S/X auto track and program track functions are supported.

Site Evolution
In 1990 the facilities comprised of:"·      15-meter antenna;""·      station building;""·      primary and emergency power plant;""·      site roads and cable carriers:""·      calibration site."In 1994 the Station administrative area was extended.

In 1997 a new technical area was ready to host ENVISAT processing systems.

Today the building areas are about 2 900 m2of which 600 m2 is controlled equipment area.

Supported ESA missions
ERS-1 was launched 17 July 1991 and the mission ended 10 March 2000 by a failure.

ERS-2 was launched 21 April 1995 and the mission ended 5 September 2011 with the 'passivation' and switch-off.

The station was prime for TT&C, receiving, processing, archiving and distribution of the scientific data for the ERS satellites.

ENVISAT was launched 1 March 2002 with 10 instruments aboard. The station was prime for TT&C, receiving, processing, archiving and distributing the scientific data. ENVISAT was lost 8th April 2012.

GOCE was launched 17 March 2009 and the mission ended 10 November 2013.

In 2015 the station provides routine support CryoSat-2, Integral, the SWARM trio and Sentinel 1A. The station has also an important role in Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) operations.

Cooperation with SSC/ESRANGE
In 1995 an optical fiber was installed between the station and ESRANGE. This connectivity made it possible to share antenna front ends between the parties in case of back-up needs

External Liinks
ESA Kiruna station