Andøya Space Sub-Orbital

Access to all layers of the atmosphere

The large impact and dispersion area in the Norwegian sea makes it possible to conduct a wide range of sub-orbital missions from Andøya Space. The current altitude record is about 1600 km (994 miles) launched from Andøya with splashdown north of Svalbard.

Lift-off can be adjusted to correlate with physical phenomena in the atmosphere, or other desired conditions.

Simultaneous launches

It is possible to conduct multiple launches from each launch site, and even combine launches from both Andøya and Svalbard in the same launch campaign. This is something that has been done several times, such as in the combined TRICE-2 and VISIONS-2 launch campaign, where two Black Brant XII vehicles launched from Andøya 90 seconds apart, and one hour later followed by two Black Brant X vehicles from Svalbard 90 seconds apart. Each pair was timed so that they reached apogee at the same moment, one high-flyer and one low-flyer.

Launch site Andøya

The sounding rocket launch site at Andøya was first established in 1962. Today it contains five rail-based launch pads. The Andøya site is suitable for (but not limited to) missions such as cusp investigations, space weather research, sea recovery if necessary, middle atmosphere investigations, technology tests as well as educational missions.

• Pad A1 – Up to Black Brant XII or equivalent, depending on installed launcher. Low elevation possible.
• Pad A2 – Meteorological rockets / student rockets
• Pad A3 – Up to Black Brant XII, or equivalent.
  Low elevation possible.
• Pad A4 – Up to Black Brant XII, and larger
• Pad A5 – Up to Black Brant XII or equivalent.
  Low elevation possible.

Launch site Svalbard

The first launch from Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, was conducted in 1997 with the Norwegian “Isbjørn-1” rocket. The launch site is ideal for (but not limited to) missions focusing on the cusp-region, as well as space weather research, since Svalbard is one of the few locations on Earth which experience day-side northern lights. Svalbard is easy accessed by daily planes from the Norwegian cities of Tromsø and Oslo.

• Pad S1 – Up to Black Brant X or equivalent
• Pad S2 – Up to Black Brant X or equivalent

Establishing and coordinating international sounding rocket campaigns  

Andøya Space 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”. 

Technology testing 

Andøya Space has supported numerous tests of new aerospace related technologies in the sounding rocket domain through the years. These tests involve both new developments in rocket motors (solid and hybrid variants), motor hardware and instrumentation.  

Sounding rockets of all sizes

Andøya Space Sub-Orbital can launch rail-based vehicles of all sizes, from meteorological rockets to singlestage vehicles and the four stage Black Brant XII.

The large impact and disperson area are suitable for a number of missions and launch vehicle sizes.

Safety assessment of new configurations 

Andøya Space always perform safety assessments of unknown rocket configurations before these can be launched from Norway. We perform these in-house trajectory simulations to compute debris footprints and probable impact areas for quantitative risk analyses and hazard area computations in order to assure that sufficient safety measures are implemented. In order to do this we require a set of input data from our customers to be delivered in due time during the initial project phase.