Andoya Spaceport

History

2023: Opening of the cosmodrome

On November 2, 2023 Norway , the ceremony of the official opening of the first in the continental To Europe orbital cosmodrome - the Andøya Spaceport site (Andoya cosmodrome) took place. The first launch from here will be carried out by a private the German aerospace company Isar Aerospace using its own two-stage Spectrum launch vehicle.

Crown Prince Haakon took part in the opening of the Andøya cosmodrome. The launch pad is located on the Norwegian island of Andøya in the Nordmela region in the north-west of the country. Due to its location far north of the coastline, the spaceport is ideal for bringing spacecraft into solar-synchronous and polar orbits around the Earth. It is noted that in the global aerospace market there is a great demand for launch sites capable of sending satellites to orbits of this type.

Thanks to the opening of the Andøya cosmodrome, Norway has become one of the countries capable of launching small and medium-sized satellites into space. The complex includes a mission control center and infrastructure to prepare for starts. After the complete completion of construction, several starting tables will be located here. However, the first of these launch sites, its payload integration facilities, and mission control center are reserved for Isar Aerospace and designed to company specifications. During the test launch, the Spectrum rocket will have to put into space several small satellites developed by students of a number of European universities, including NTNU in Norway.

Today, Norway, the Andøya region and Isar Aerospace are taking a big step towards space. We have created a rocket that will help solve the most important bottleneck in the European space industry - sovereign and competitive access to space, says Isar Aerospace CEO and co-founder Daniel Metzler[1]

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