The story
Ferdinand 1
On August 18, 1962, the rocket that was to take Norway into the space age, Ferdinand 1, launched from Andøya Rocket Range. This happened only five years after the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1.
The Norwegian scientists named the rocket "Ferdinand" after the story of the peaceful bull that did not like to fight but would rather sit in the meadow smelling the flowers. The name was appropriate since the area of the Rocket Range was called Oksebåsen, "The Ox Pasture". This was during the Cold War, so the name should also indicate that Andøya Rocket Range only had peaceful intentions with its research.
Ferdinand-1 was a NIKE-Cajun two-stage rocket that carried two instruments in its payload. The purpose of the launch was to do measurements in the ionosphere, where charged particles from the Sun ionize the atoms. The process is most intense in the polar ionosphere, and is important not only for the Northern Lights, but also for long-range radio communication, because the free electrons reflect the radio waves. The goal was to explore the possibility of improving long-range radio communication.
The rocket was 7.7 m (25 ft) long, had a total weight of 698 kg (1,539 lb) and a maximum speed of 6,760 km/h (4,200 mph). It reached a height of 102 km (63 mi) into the atmosphere. Launching and collecting data after the first rocket was considered a success. Ferdinand 1 became the first of a number of successful rocket launches from Andøya.
Svalbard Rocket Range
In 1997, a second launch site—Svalbard Rocket Range—was established at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, enabling scientists to launch sounding rockets straight in the polar cusp, where the Earth's magnetic field lines converge.
A ground-based, lidar observatory, ALOMAR (Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research) opened in 1994, and can help atmospheric research in the Arctic. The range is also host of northern Europe's largest VHF-radar.
In 1995, a Black Brant sounding rocket launched from Andøya caused a high alert in Russia, known as the Norwegian Rocket Incident. The Russians thought it might be a nuclear missile launched from an American submarine. President Boris Yeltsin was alerted for a possible counter strike, when the Russians understood that it was not heading towards Russia.
Russia was informed in advance about the launch, but this information was lost in the Russian bureaucracy, and never reached the radar operators; only seafarers were notified.
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The space center changed its name from Andøya Rocket Range to Andøya Space on 6 June 2014 to reflect an increased focus on also other activities than sounding rockets, though rocketry is still its main focus. Other activities are UAVs, lidar and radar measurements for atmospheric research and also a test center for missiles through its subsidiary Andøya Test Center.
North Star
In January 2013, Nammo and the Andøya Space Center announced that they would be "developing a rocket system called North Star that will use a standardized hybrid motor, clustered in different numbers and arrangements, to build two types of sounding rockets and an orbital launcher" that would be able to deliver a 10 kg (22 lb) nanosat into polar orbit.
Andøya Spaceport
Andøya Spaceport was established as a project in 2018, with the aim of establishing the first European launch base for small satellites. It is mainly satellites for Earth observation and communications that are planned to be launched from Andøya, in polar- or Sun-synchronous orbit. In polar orbit, the satellite passes above or near the Earth's poles at each orbit. This is favorable for Norway as they then provide good satellite coverage of Norwegian areas and good communication and sea monitoring in the north. Sun-synchronous orbit means that the satellite passes a given latitude to two fixed local times, one for northbound and one for southbound passage. The satellite's orbital plane rotates eastwards approx. 1 degree per day, and so it maintains the angle with respect to the sunlight and gets most light for its solar cells. In this way, satellites for Earth observation receive data with an equal amount of sunlight and can thus use data to analyze changes that occur on the surface throughout the year. Norway funded the site with NOK 365.6 million, expecting a commercial return of the investment.
Isar Aerospace
Isar Aerospace of Germany signed an agreement with Andøya Space, securing exclusive access for a period of up to twenty years to one launch pad on the island Andøya. As a launch site operator, the Andøya Spaceport provides launch pads, payload integration facilities as well as the technical infrastructure on site. Ingun Berget, President of Andøya Spaceport said: “The opening of the spaceport on Andøya island marks an important milestone for Norway, European New Space industry and our partnership with Isar Aerospace: this enables us to have the first satellite launches ever from European soil to take place from Andøya. The attendance of today's opening by Crown Prince Haakon underlines the importance of our endeavor and puts us on the New Space map in Europe.” The CEO and co-founder of Isar Aerospace said that the company and Andøya Spaceport had created an orbital launch site intended to provide Norway and Europe with access to space.
Following an initial launch failure in March 2025, Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum rocket on its second flight attempt on 5 September 2026, on the mission "Onward and Upward". The rocket successfully reached orbit with several customer payloads.
From Wikipedia’s article on Andøya Space, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5