STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Swedish Space Corp. workers on Thursday carried out final preparations on a rocket carrying weightlessness experiments that is due to be launched next week.

The 50-foot-long solid-fuel Maxus 6 is expected to be launched, weather permitting, from a launch pad in Sweden's far north.

If it is successful, the rocket will climb to an altitude of 441 miles, reaching the edge of space, and float weightless for about 12 minutes before falling back to earth.

The 12.4-ton, single-stage "sounding rocket" will carry eight European Space Agency-funded microgravity experiments aboard it.

For such experiments, rockets are launched just beyond the atmosphere into the edge of space and flights last a few minutes before the payload parachutes back to earth where it is typically recovered within an hour after impact.

The Esrange launching pad is located near Kiruna, some 765 miles north of the capital because of its remote location and lack of people living nearby.

The cost of Monday's launch is estimated to be $11.6 million, SSC spokeswoman Johanna Bergstroem-Roos told The Associated Press.

The experiments aboard the rocket involve material and fluid sciences, along with biology.

The microgravity environment gives researchers a unique opportunity to study the fundamental states of matter -- solids, liquids and gas -- and the forces that affect them.

In microgravity, researchers can isolate and control the forces, giving researchers access to test results that haven't been influenced by earth's gravity.

Maxus, Europe's biggest sounding rocket project, is a joint venture between the SSC and the German company Astrium.

The first Maxus rocket was launched from Esrange in May 1991.