SRS is led by a Chairman, who also is the Chair of a Panel with representatives from relevant science areas (current persons are listed under “Contact SRS”). According to an agreement with the Royal Academy of Science (KVA) this panel should also be the national COSPAR committee. The Swedish national representative in COSPAR is Per Magnusson, Swedish National Space Agency.
Space Science has grown since the 1960s. New science areas have been added, and there are new applications. This makes it important to have a creative meeting place for the different actors in Space Science in Sweden.
Since Space Science evolves constantly, also SRS has evolved. At the SRS meeting in Kiruna, on September 11, 2007, new statutes were adopted. The statues were updated at the meeting in Lund, on 23-24 March 2011.
The Swedish Space Scientists Association (“Svenska Rymdforskares Samarbetsgrupp”, SRS) was until 1967 named “Samarbetsgrupp för Svensk Rymdforskning (SSR)” and it was founded by Willy Stoffregen, Director of Uppsala Ionospheric Observatory (now the Swedish Institute of Space Physics).
The first meeting was held in Uppsala, on 21 May 1964 in Uppsala “to discuss what form Swedish Space Science should have to further the goals of the different research groups” (quote from the protocol of the first meeting).