Textversion av intervju med Bengt Hultqvist.

The interview treats Bengt Hultqvist’s career as a Swedish pi-oneer in space physics, as the first director of Kiruna Geo-physical Observatory, KGO (founded in 1957; today the Swedish Institute for Space Research, IRF), and his key role in Swedish and international space-related cooperation, not least as the chairman of the Swedish space research commit-tee (1970 – 94), as Secretary General of IAGA (2001 – 09) and as the initiator of EISCAT. Given these multiple roles, the interview also covers many different aspects of Swedish and international space activities. The establishment of KGO and the early history of the institute, as well as how Esrange and EISCAT came to be based in Kiruna, are given particular attention. Hultqvist contributes with his insights into the Swedish network of politicians, civil servants, and scientists within the emerging field. The informal character of this net-work in the early days is contrasted to a later relatively more bureaucratic set-up. Furthermore, the Swedish satellite pro-jects Viking and Freja are rendered as success stories both in terms of their scientific results and as examples of the smooth cooperation between all involved parties: the scientific groups involved and the Swedish state and industry actors. Although the scientists were needed for the first approach to every new field, the politicians’ main interest quickly concentrated on the development of the new technological fields for industrial purposes. The interview further probes Hultqvist’s experienc-es from international cooperation within international organi-zations such as ESRO, ESA, IAGA, COPERS and URSI, as well as different forms of Nordic and bilateral cooperation, not least with the Soviet Union. In this, Hultqvist frames the cooperation between scientists as relatively frictionless, whereas political involvement could often bring tensions to the negotiations. Another take-away message is how im-portant it was, in the long term, for KGO/IRF in Kiruna to be involved from the start and have instrument on-board the first European satellites. Not only was it easier to make ground-breaking results in this early stage, but prior experi-ence would later be a prerequisite for joining later launches of European scientific satellites.