Andøya Space and NASA have had a close cooperation since the very beginning of Andøya Space back in the 1960s. Telemetry equipment on loan from NASA supported the very first launch of a Norwegian research rocket on August 18th, 1962. Four years later – on March 21st, 1966 – the very first NASA mission launched from Andøya.
Since then, over three hundred NASA missions have taken to the skies above Norway, and the cooperation runs deep. In 2018, NASA made its largest shipment ever of rocket motors to a foreign country to participate in the international Grand Challenge Cusp-research campaign.
– The history we share with NASA is long and close, says Kolbjørn Blix, Vice President Sub-Orbital. – And we’re very proud to be able to support them in their pursuit of scientific discoveries.
– This August, for instance, NASA published exciting news of a new global electric field. The science data for this came from a NASA sounding rocket launched from Andøya Space’s facilities at Svalbard (link below).
Andøya Space was recently visited by Ms Sandra Connelly, who is the Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The directorate runs a diverse portfolio of missions in a number of fields such as heliophysics, Earth science and astrophysics.
The visit occured during the preparation phase of an ongoing NASA launch campaign at Andøya Space, the VortEx 2 mission. Ms Connelly met with the launch team, and with the other business areas of Andøya Space. Her visit concluded with a tour of the new Norwegian spaceport, where preparations are underway to launch satellites into polar and sun-synchronized orbits.
– NASA’s longstanding partnership with Norway and the Andøya Space Center is critical for understanding our home planet and how our atmosphere interfaces with space, said Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
Photo: NASA.
– I am looking forward to the launch of the VortEx 2 mission and the incredible science it will deliver as we learn more about how these hurricane-like waves, created by Earth’s topography and weather, can impact the upper part of our atmosphere.
– We’ve launched 320 research missions together with NASA so far, says Blix. – And that includes missions that are not possible to conduct anywhere else. Through our collaborative multinational Grand Challenge Initiatives, we want to achieve more science for the money, and having NASA onboard is a great boost for other countries’ participation. We’ve already completed the Grand Challenge Cusp (2018-2021), where research missions from three countries focused on the polar cusp region.
– We are now conducting the Grand Challenge ML/T (2022-2026), where scientists from eight countries focus on the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region of the atmosphere. And we’re now in the midst of defining the third Grand Challenge, which will be named CUSP Solar Max (2025-2030) , says Blix.
– And with the establishment of the new Norwegian spaceport, Andøya Space have gained new, additional ways to support NASA and continue our partnership of science, Blix concludes.