The story of Andøya Space Sub-Orbital began in 1962, with the very first civilian sub-orbital launch from Andøya, Norway. The scientific objective for the first launch was to investigate the ionosphere.

The mission was an astounding success and six decades later the original launch pad, with its zero-length launcher, has long since been replaced with modern, rail-based, remote controlled launchers capable of handling launch vehicles many times larger than the very first.

In 1997, Norway comissioned a second sub-orbital launch site, located at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. The northern location is ideal for studies of so-called day-side northern lights and other space weather related missions.

Together these two launch sites enable scientists to perform complex research missions which are not possible to conduct anywhere else in the world. Large and complex launch campaigns involving multiple vehicles simultaneously from both sites have been conducted successfully in recent years.

In the early 2000s work began to build up the engineering capability at Andøya, resulting in the development of a standardized sounding rocket payload section called Hotel Payload, which has been the basis for several Norwegian research missions.

Grand Challenge Initiative

Andøya Space Sub-Orbital has, together with national and international collaborators, taken initiative to several major international sounding rocket projects. These also included support from satellites and ground-based instruments.

The biggest one so far – Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) – CUSP was a large-scale international collaboration effort targeting advancement in specific, fundamental issues in space and earth science. Currently, a follow-up project is being developed – GCI 3.0 CUSP “Solar Max”. 

Future

Andøya Space Sub-Orbital is still the backbone of Andøya Space and continues to develop to stay relevant. The launch sites at both Andøya and Svalbard has been extended with additional launch pads to enable multiple rockets launched in a short period of time (minutes separation) and to comply with national and international agreements.