Technology testing

The infrastructure and resources at Andøya Space is ideal for testing and validation of new technologies.

We’ve been granted a 25 000 square kilometer danger area by the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authorities and our impact and dispersion area in the Norwegian Sea allows us to conduct operations not possible anywhere else.

We can offer the use of a runway, hangars, workshops, harbor, gust offices. Having mobile telemetry, radar, flight termination and secure communication solutions means we can build the test range to your specific needs.

This enables us to perform tests using a wide variety of platforms, from unmanned to manned aircraft, large balloons, sounding rockets, ship-based applications and so on.

Andøya Space has been used in the past to conduct full-scale tests of heat shields for spacecraft, technology for hypersonic vehicles, advanced missile systems, large unmanned aircraft and of hybrid propulsion for rocket motors.

Artists view of a sounding rocket releasing two cubesats in space.

Sounding rockets as a test bed for new technology

Sounding rockets are an optimum testbed for future space-based instruments and are frequently used for technology development. With the fast mission turnaround time – as short as a few months – it is possible to fly a concept instrument on a sounding rocket to verify functionality before committing to an expensive development of space-based systems.

Sounding rockets give possibilities for advanced technology tests of new propulsion systems, e.g. scramjet, ramjet or hybrid rocket motors.

Andøya Space can build payload sections for experimental rockets and have experience in doing so – from design to assembly and then environmental testing.  

More information

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