SGAC Norway

National Points of Contact Norway

Welcome to the SGAC page of Norway. Did you know that Norway was the first country in the world to enter into force a national space law? It was the Norwegian Act of 1969 stating that ‘anyone launching an object into outer space from Norwegian territory or facilities requires permission from the Minister of Trade and Industry.’ Two weeks later, on July 1st 1969, Norway ratified the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty.

Young Space Activities Overview in Norway

Historically, Norway has been a nation of explorers. Today, Norway is ideal for space technology applications due to its geography, climate and its large maritime area, which is a whopping seven times the size of its terrestrial. Located at the top of the world, Norway is also very well placed to study the phenomena of the beautiful and intriguing Aurora Borealis – the Northern Lights. The first research sounding rocket was launched from Andøya Rocket Range in 1962, and today Andøya is NASA’s most important sounding rocket launchpad outside of the US.
Norway has also contributed to missions such as Spacelab 1 and 2, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cluster mission and the joint ESA/NASA mission SOHO, to name a few. When it comes to the field of navigation, the Vikings started out with navigating by the stars to discover America around the year 1000. Today, Norway plays an active role in the European flagship Galileo, the satellite navigation constellation.
In Norway, you can also find one of the places on the planet that are the most similar to the Mars environment. Svalbard is an attractive location for Mars exploration mission testing and NASA and ESA have tested Mars rovers, instruments and even space suits here! Did you know that one of only two non-US instruments going to be onboard the next Mars science vehicle is a Norwegian ground penetrating radar?

Country-Specific Events

  • Space Dinner – NIFRO´s Space Dinner is and annual national space conference, and a meeting place for representatives of the space industry, R&D communities, members of Parliament, representatives of the Government and stakeholders.
  • Spaceport Norway – A conference that will explore how space technology and services can be a strong platform for industrial and business development, and why this is relevant for you – Stavanger.
  • European Space Camp – European Space Camp enables students between the ages of 17 and 20 to take control of every aspect of a rocket campaign, including circuit making, telemetry and of course the launch itself, under the supervision of some of Europe’s best rocket scientists – Andøya.
  • CaNoRock – The Canada-Norway Student Sounding Rocket (CaNoRock) exchange program is a partnership between the Universities of Alberta, Calgary and Saskatchewan, the University of Oslo, University of Tromsø, Andøya Space Center and NAROM (Norwegian Center for Space Related Education) in Andøya, Norway.

Interesting Web Links

  • Alpbach Summer School:Ten days of summer school in the Alps of Austria. The Norwegian Space Centre gives out 1-2 scholarships a year.
  • Andøya Space Centre (ASC): ASC is a service provider for sounding rocket, balloon, unmanned aircraft and scientific ground based instrumentation communities.
  • CaNoSat: CaNoSat aims to build and launch five 3-unit CubeSats in a ten year timespan. This will allow uptake of new students every two years to start on a new satellite mission.
  • CubeSTAR: The CubeSTAR is a satellite fully developed by the University of Oslo students that is based on the Cubesat framework.
  • HiNCube: The HiNCube project was initiated by a group of students and teachers February 2006 at Narvik University College (NUC). The intention of the HiNCube project was to create a satellite platform for future scientific missions as well as increase the interest for science and space technology in Norway.
  • International Summerschool on GNSS: The 11th edition of the ESA/JRC International Summerschool on GNSS 2017 wa held in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, close to the world’s northernmost Galileo station.
  • International Astronautical Congress: The biggest space event of the year. The IAC is the one time of the year when all space actors come together. Global, multidisciplinary and covering all space sectors and topics, it offers everyone the latest space information, developments but above all contacts and potential partnerships.
  • International Space University: The International Space University develops the future leaders of the world space community by providing interdisciplinary educational programs to students and space professionals in an international, intercultural environment. Funding for Norwegians is available through the ISU Funding Committee and the Norwegian Space Center
  • Norwegian Space Centre: The NSC is responsible for organizing Norwegian space activities, particularly with respect to ESA and the EU, and for coordinating national space activities. Travel Expenses – The Norwegian Space Centre can cover parts of the travel expenses for Norwegian participants at space conferences or courses.
  • Norwegian Astronautical Society: An organization focusing on astronomy.
  • NTNU Test Satellite (NUTS): The NUTS CubeSat project aims to bring forth a double CubeSat through the work of master students at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU.
  • Romportalen: A web page showing how Norwegians can get involved in the space industry.
  • Space Generation Congress: The annual meeting of the Space Generation Advisory Council held in conjunction with the International Astronautical Congress. Participants are top university students and young professionals with a passion for space who are selected from among applicants from our Space Generation international network.
  • SpaceUp:A global movement of space unconferences, where participants give presentations and discusses space related topics.
  • SpaceBook: Join the Norwegian page!
  • The Norwegian Industrial Forum for Space Activities (NIFRO): NIFRO is the national organization formed to promote the interests and growth of Norwegian space industry.
  • The Space Portal: A web page showing how Norwegians can get involved in the space industry.