ourists restarted after it had been discontinued for 20 years due to the drowning of Valfrid Johansson. Until the 1980s, tourism had been mainly a summer business, but touristic exploitation of dog sledging was started in 1983 in Jukkasj�rvi. In 1990, the first Icehotel was built in Jukkasj�rvi and advertised as the worlds largest igloo. It had been built using techniques from the building of Malmbanan 90 years before, and was also inspired by the Snow Festival, that had started in 1986 to celebrate the Swedish Viking satellite. Since 1998, a special tourist area exists in the mine and since 1999, tourists can visit the various areas of research going on in Kiruna.
In 1957, the Kiruna Geophysical Observatory (KGO) (now the Swedish Institute of Space Physics) was founded and established by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.Esrange Space Centre is established in 1966. Here, rocket operations and ground-based observations are carried out since 1966, balloon operations since 1974, satellite operations since 1978 and testing operations since 2000 (with the Swedish Defence Material Administration). ESA also operates a satellite station near at Salmaj�rvi, near Esrange, since 1989. In 1987, Ume� University started a space engineering program in Kiruna, and GIS education was started by Lule� University of Technology in 1991. In 1993, The Ume� space engineers moved to the same building housing IRF and a year later another Lule� University programme, civil engineering with specialisation in space technology, started at the same location. Since 2006, the Erasmus Mundus Master Course in Space Science and Technology has started with at least one semester spent at LTU. In 2007, education along IRV was split and only the Department of Space Science, belonging to Lule� University of Technology, remained, while the Ume� University programme in Space Engineering quit.
The Kiruna Icehotel has been built in Jukkasj�rvi each winter since 1990 and has become a major
