Official inauguration of Swiss Space Systems Croatia, also Spaceport sites in Malaysia and Morocco

http://www.s-3.ch/en/home/2015/02/16/official-inauguration-of-swiss-space-systems-croatia
Official inauguration of Swiss Space Systems Croatia

Zagreb, Croatia (February 16, 2015).

S3, officially inaugurated its daughter company, Swiss Space Systems Croatia, in the presence of the Ambassador of Switzerland in Croatia, as well as representatives of the national and local authorities and international guests from the aerospace sector.

The company is located in Zagreb and Sladjan Zovko is its General Director. For the S3 Group, this inauguration represents a new important step in its expansion in Europe, as Croatia will play an important role in different parts of the S3 program. First activities of S3 Croatia will be the ZeroG flights, which are taking place in Croatia in the first half of 2016. In the longer term, Croatia is foreseen as an interesting location to operate. S3 Croatia also plans to build a spaceport infrastructure in Ubdina and will be involved in the development work on the upper-stage and its assembly, creating highly skilled jobs in the country. Moreover, S3 Croatia will play a role in Space Research and Education, involving the main universities and research centers from Croatia active in this field.

Swiss Space Systems (S3) is developing its activities and now counts more than 75 employees in Switzerland, Spain and the US. The engineering team, supported by their industrial and academic partners, is progressing on the Research & Development phase of a reusable, flexible, safe and affordable small satellite launching system, based on an Airbus aircraft carrying the SOAR sub-orbital shuttle on its back. The SOAR carries an expendable upper-stage, released at an altitude of 80 km to go up to 700 km and deliver the satellites in low earth orbit. After the launch it is disintegrated into the atmosphere without producing space debris. 2015 will be a crucial year for S3, with its first ZeroG flights and wind tunnel testing and a mock up flight test campaign leading to the end of its R&D phase. In Europe, S3 already counts on a strong network of industrial and institutional partners from France, Belgium, Italy and Spain. Now, this European network will be extended to Croatia with the inauguration of a daughter company in Zagreb as a first step.

Croatia to play an important role in main parts of S3 overall program

The choice of expanding in Croatia is part of a strategic plan for S3, as Croatia will play an integral part in the different aspects of its project. Croatia has a lot of assets to be a future important aerospace player at the European level and Swiss Space Systems chose this country to expand their activities in Europe.

First activities of S3 Croatia will be the ZeroG flights to take place in the first half of 2016. Croatia has some interesting locations for future operations as well as satellite launches and, in the longer term, suborbital passenger flights. A project of Spaceport in Croatia based on the concept of the S3 Spaceport to be built in Switzerland is in its early stage, with possible location in Ubdina.