Danish Space Research Institute (DSRI) (Danish

Danish language

Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

: Dansk Rumforskningsinstitut, short DRI) was the space agency of Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 from 1966 to 2005. It was a Danish sector research institute formed in 1966 under the Danish Ministry for Education and Research, later the Danish Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation. Denmark was a founding member of the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

 (ESA) in 1975 and launched the satellite Oersted in 1999. Europe's space programme: to Ariane and beyond, notes the DRI had budget in excess of 2.6 million Euros supporting a staff of 40 people, with an additional 25 million Euros going to the ESA in 2001.

Its primary areas of research was astrophysics

Astrophysics

Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...

 and solar system physics. A great deal of the research was concentrated on X-ray

X-ray

X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...

 coming from astronomical objects. DRI have had X-ray equipment on board the Russian Satellite Granat

Granat

The International Astrophysical Observatory "GRANAT" , was a Soviet space observatory developed in collaboration with France, Denmark and Bulgaria. It was launched on 1 December 1989 aboard a Proton rocket and placed in a highly eccentric four-day orbit, of which three were devoted to observations...

 and the European EURECA satellite. The now concluded Danish Small Satellite Program, which resulted in the aforementioned Oersted (Ørsted) satellite, was headed by DRI. The DRI space missions were supervised by the Danish Space Board.

On January 1, 2005 the DRI and the geodesy

Geodesy

Geodesy , also named geodetics, a branch of earth sciences, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth, including its gravitational field, in a three-dimensional time-varying space. Geodesists also study geodynamical phenomena such as crustal...

 part of Kort & Matrikelstyrelsen merged to form the Danish National Space Center

Danish National Space Center

The Danish National Space Center is a Danish sector research Institute and a part of the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. It is located in Copenhagen at Østerbro...

.

The DRI prepared instruments/components for:

• Granat
  Granat
  The International Astrophysical Observatory "GRANAT" , was a Soviet space observatory developed in collaboration with France, Denmark and Bulgaria. It was launched on 1 December 1989 aboard a Proton rocket and placed in a highly eccentric four-day orbit, of which three were devoted to observations...
  
  , X-Ray/Gamma-Ray space observatory
• Viking program
  Viking program
  The Viking program consisted of a pair of American space probes sent to Mars, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts, an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface...
  
  , Mars lander/Orbiter
• Cluster mission
  Cluster mission
  Cluster II is a space mission of the European Space Agency, with NASA participation, to study the Earth's magnetosphere over the course of an entire solar cycle. The mission is composed of four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation...
  
  , Earth observation satellites
• International Space Observatory
• Ørsted satellite, Earth magnetic field observations
• Plank mission

As of 2010, the Ørsted is still in orbit and returning data.

See also

• Danish Meteorological Institute
  Danish Meteorological Institute
  The Danish Meteorological Institute is the official Danish meteorological institute, administrated by the Ministry of Transport and Energy. The institute makes weather forecasts and observations for Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands....
  
  , cooperated with the DRI
• Copenhagen Suborbitals
  Copenhagen Suborbitals
  Copenhagen Suborbitals is a non-profit organization working towards suborbital manned spaceflight. Founded in 2008 by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen the project has accomplished a successful sea launch of a test hybrid rocket, carrying a full scale human model...
  
  , Danish amateur manned space flight
  • Tycho Brahe (spacecraft)
    Tycho Brahe (spacecraft)
    HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe is a rocket and spacecraft project which is being built by Copenhagen Suborbitals, a Danish organization attempting to perform the first amateur manned spaceflight....