ESA Kiruna Station

ESA’s Kiruna Station at Salmijärvi, 38 km east of Kiruna, is an ESTRACK ground station for communications with satellites in Earth orbit. It hosts KIR-1, a 15 m antenna, and KIR-2, a 13 m antenna; both support S-band uplink and downlink and X-band downlink, with tracking, telemetry, telecommand and radiometric measurements. KIR-2 receives high-rate Earth-observation and scientific payload data, while the station provides routine low-Earth-orbit support and specialised Launch and Early Orbit Phase support. Routine operations are controlled from ESA’s Estrack Control Centre at ESOC, and ESA publishes an ESOC contact for station access questions. SSC’s separate Esrange Visitor Center is a public destination farther along the same road; its visitor policy does not provide access to ESA Kiruna Station.