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Changes in management

Dag H. Stølan appointed new CEO

Dag H. Stølan is appointed to the position of CEO of Space Norway AS. He comes from the position of Director of Infrastructure and CSO in Space Norway.

Before joining Space Norway in 2017, Stølan had a long-standing career in the Norwegian Armed Forces, the last position as Major General and Head of procurement at Norwegian Defense Materiel Agency.

Dag H. Stølan succeeds Jostein Rønneberg, who has been leading the company since 2013. The company develops and maintains critical space related infrastructure, and consists of the parent company Space Norway AS and the two subsidiaries Statsat AS and Space Norway HEOSAT AS, as well as the jointly owned Kongsberg Satellite Services AS.

Stølan has deep insight in the company’s activities and is well suited to continue the work Rønneberg has started. He has a long experience in leading organizations with large and complex projects as well as a good understanding of public administration and processes. His background gives him an excellent understanding of the need for critical space services, including the strategic importance of space for its most demanding users.

Chairman of the Board, Svein Olav Munkeby says: “Stølan has been deeply involved in company decisions and has acted as deputy for the CEO. This implies excellent knowledge and oversight of strategy and ongoing activities and future projects. The Board is very content with his appointment and feel that he will bring continuity as well as deliver on our ongoing projects. At the same time, he has the qualifications needed to bring Space Norway into the next phase of its development. All this is important for the Board. I would like to thank Jostein Rønneberg for the exceptional work he has put down in developing Space Norway into a leading satellite company with an order backlog reaching NOK 9 B”.

CEO Jostein Rønneberg, says: “On behalf of the company, I am content with the Board’s decision. Stølan has all the qualifications needed to succeed in taking the company into the future. Space Norway is an important company for Norway, and I wish him good luck”.

“Jostein Rønneberg has brought this company to its solid position and an excellent platform for further growth. I am looking forward to continuing and building on Rønneberg’s work. It is a privilege to be allowed working with the dedicated and highly competent workforce here at Space Norway,” says Dag H. Stølan.

Stølan will take office in June.

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Long distance security

Taking strict security measures in space project

Security measures for a satellite operation means assessing everything from physical risk at a ground station to cyber attacks in space and space debris. The operation must be aligned with the current security threats. Simple, but very complicated.

Any Norwegian space project is international in its execution. We have world class competence, but we are a small player in the space industry. In 2024, Space Norway launches two highly elliptical satellites that will provide broadband to the Arctic. The two satellites in the ASBM programme (Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission) are being built in the US and will cover and transmit to American soil. We interact with both suppliers and customers here (read this article on Landing Rights in the US) in addition to our Norwegian and British customers.

Security is especially important when the operation takes place in space and on the ground at the same time, and it is equally important to cooperate well with customers and suppliers on security matters. The measures we must take into consideration span from physical and digital protection of the ground stations to operating the satellites in a secure fashion and to the protection of software and systems on board the satellites. Obviously, there is a whole range of different risks that can occur in such a wide scope. A satellite will not be exposed to the same physical threats as the ground stations, such as flooding for example, but the operation as an entity must consider everything that can happen on the ground and in space at the same time. Security is seen in three dimensions: Confidentiality protects the values; integrity protects information and makes sure it does what it is supposed to do and finally availability provides what you want when you want it.

So how does one cover such an elaborate and important issue, with so many variables and with customers and suppliers from different countries with different rules and demands? A common set of rules and standards is a good beginning.

To cover all these considerations as simply as possible in cooperation with our partners, Space Norway uses the American NIST as a framework. NIST (The National Institute of Standards and Technology) offers framework and guidelines using open standards and suggestions for measures to secure operations and information through developing policies and procedures tailor made for our needs. This institute does not have power of enforcement nor powers of revision, but it offers a wide range of security standards, from the smallest nano particle tool to global communication networks. They offer principles for procedures and detailed suggestions for the whole process.

Space Norway’s security team works with specialized consultants in implementing these procedures for our ASBM operation. To us, it is essential to be credible towards our national and international customers, and NIST is an important common basis for our security efforts.

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Space Norway's US Field Office

Managing the ASBM project from abroad

Space Norway’s two highly elliptical satellites launch from Vandenberg, California. They are being built by Northrop Grumman (NG), also located in the US. The Arctic Broadband Satellite Mission (ASBM) programme has hired a team in the US to monitor the process leading up to launch.

Oddveig Tretterud is the project manager for the ASBM programme, responsible for the Space project and keeping an eye on the building of the satellite and the launch. Oddveig travelled to Dulles in Washington DC in 2020, where NG has its headquarters to put together our Field Office. She has extensive experience in building satellites along with having worked several years in the US before. She knows the business and she knows which skills are needed to manage the complicated business of building satellites.

The satellites Space Norway has bought from NG are by no means mass produced, they are very complex. Overseeing the building of this very logistically challenging operation requests technically demanding practical work. Decisions must be made quickly, and someone needs to be present at the supplier’s location every day. These processes never run smoothly, assessments and choices must be made continuously making client presence a necessity to ensure the best possible product delivery. In addition to Oddveig, her team consists of highly experienced consultants with detailed knowledge of the different disciplines of a satellite project. Her team is comprised by Jim, Roland and Chris, three engineers with decades of experience from similar programmes for Telesat, a large Canadian satellite company. Additionally, working together with our team are two people from our client Inmarsat and one person from the US Space Force.

The daily routine involves meetings with the supplier, first during the design phase dominated by analysis and assessments towards the program specifications. Once the design is approved, extensive testing on each component commences at the production site before delivery at NG for integration on the satellite platform. There, testing at system level starts. The process of testing is considerable, and all test results are discussed and assessed. If a test fails for some reason, detailed processes to identify, repair and recreate the failure are instigated. Agreement on why the failure happened and consensus that all measures are taken to ensure that it will not happen again, are needed before further testing can continue. The Field Office is involved in all these stages, all the while reporting back home on status, progress, areas of risk and measures. The team additionally coordinates communication between NG and the rocket supplier, SpaceX.

Our Field Office tracks the process from the design phase, through building and testing. When the building is complete and the satellites are ready, they are transported to the launch site. After launch, the test regimen continues in orbit. And then, finally, control of the satellites is transferred to satellite operations and the job is done for our Field Office.

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US Space Force

Delivers final payload

The Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission is scheduled to launch in 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force announced Nov. 28 it delivered the second and final military communications payloads that will launch in 2023 on Space Norway’s Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission known as ASBM.

The first Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization (EPS-R) payload was delivered in June. Both payloads are scheduled to launch to highly elliptical orbits on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Read the whole Space News- article written by Sandra Erwin here

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Space Norway and Sternula

Wins VDES-contract with ESA

Danish and Norwegian satellite operators, Sternula and Space Norway, who are the world’s first to launch and operate VDES satellites, will work together on satellite network roaming, search-and-rescue, and new maritime IoT services in a new ESA-funded research project to realize AIS 2.0.

The VDES technology has been developed over the past decade by IALA as the evolution of AIS for digital data exchange in the maritime VHF frequency band and has now matured to enable the digital transformation of the maritime industry. The technology, sometimes referred to as AIS 2.0, has been approved by the United Nations’ telecom agency, ITU, for global use in the maritime VHF spectrum. The world’s first VDES capable satellite, NorSat-2, launched in 2017, has allowed Space Norway to demonstrate a range of maritime digital services, and with the launch of NorSat-TD in April 2023 the VDES capabilities of Space Norway will increase further. Sternula is launching its first satellite in December 2022 as a pioneer VDES satellite operator.

VDES allows for two-way communication where AIS is a one-way system. The range of terrestrial VDES is limited to a station’s visibility above the horizon, which usually means a maximum range of approximately 70-100 kilometres. However, satellite VDES provides coverage also outside the range of coastal stations, such as open oceans and Arctic waters. VDES supports a wide range of services and applications that improve the safety of life at sea and helps the maritime industry become more efficient and environmentally friendly. This includes services such as distribution of maritime safety information, data exchange for improved situational awareness in rescue operations and route exchange for safer and more cost effective journeys.

In a new ESA-funded research project, Sternula and Space Norway will work together to develop and demonstrate maritime IoT services based on the VDES technology, VDES satellite network roaming and maritime distress alert detection in support of search and rescue. The project paves the way for new and innovative maritime digital data services in support of e-Navigation and the digital evolution of the maritime industry. Additionally, the project will test a roaming capability between Sternula and Space Norway’s satellites to deliver better services to the customers.  The system relays information from a ship’s components gathered by Sternula equipment via Space Norway’s satellite. While at sea, a ship’s need for maintenance or spare parts can be identified, making maintenance and repairs easy and time efficient when in port.

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Don't interfere! Frequencies in space.

Space Norway engineers
From left: Christer Varan, Group Manager Regulatory, Duc Van (Dave) Duong, Space Systems Engineer and Birger Johansen, Director, Space Systems at Space Norway.

Radio frequencies are shared resources, and that makes global cooperation necessary. Making order and predictability in frequency allocation is a time consuming and very complex task.

To any outside person, calculating which satellites will transmit when and where and on which frequency, without interfering with each other, would seem like an infernal game of pick-up sticks. Thousands of satellites orbit the globe at any given moment, transmitting to their ground stations. How to secure free transmission, without interfering with signals from all the other satellites?

In 2015, Space Norway decided to launch two highly elliptical satellites for polar orbit. A launch like this demands a lot of planning, time, money, bureaucracy – and a lot of computer calculation capacity. A planned launch means you notify on behalf of a state, not a company, your predicted frequency requirement. This notification is delivered via the national communications authority to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations’ body for space frequency coordination. Space Norway’s strategy was to make as many and high quality simulations as possible, in advance of the notification. This is a complicated strategy since the notification must be delivered many years before the program knows exactly what its customers will need.

When satellites transmit on frequencies close to another, interference is very likely. New satellites must know that its transmissions down to its ground stations will not interfere with existing patterns of transmission. Two causes are the most likely to create noise; one is other satellites and the other is the weather, especially rain. Any satellite operator must reach an agreement with other operators that their satellites will not create interference for the other’s signals. This issue is solved in many long meetings where the newcomer brings along simulations showing predicted interference.

The regulations system used by the ITU to allocate frequencies were made a long time ago, and it is designed for geo stationary satellites. Since the system was introduced, a lot more traffic has been added, and the technology used is much more advanced. Geo stationary satellites do not move across the horizon, they move with the same speed as the earth’s rotation allowing them to transmit directly down to their ground stations all the time. Satellites in polar orbit will continuously move towards or away from their ground stations, resulting in more interference, and that is much more complicated to calculate. Coordinating the frequencies between polar and geo stationary orbits is very complex.

When Space Norway started working with the frequencies for its HEOSAT program, there were no models for calculating interference for non geo stationary satellites. All modelling and simulation tools had to be developed from scratch. These computations are so complicated that most computers would kneel: To estimate interference, one must calculate how the signals will hit approximately every second. For accurate statistical purposes, you need to calculate every second for two days. Two days have 172,800 seconds, resulting in several tens of billions of computations to make accurate simulations.

Once this job is done, you need to reach an agreement with the other satellite operators. Agreeing that the calculations made are correct, is the first hurdle, and agreeing that the statistics are correct is the second. Then the hard part starts. The next stage is agreeing on how much interference actually poses a problem and how much noise you can live with. This exercise is done with all nearby operators.

As if this was not complicated enough, some nations demand that you apply for market access on their territory. This brings a new set of regulations that must be adhered to, combined with more long-lasting discussions. Frequency coordination is a never-ending task. New operators with plans for new satellites bringing new notices to the table is the status quo.

The ITU is not an enforcing agency, meaning they have no authority to decide how two operators agree on frequencies. This means that as long as we all have a common interest, the pieces normally fall into place. Not surprisingly, not all operators always play by the same rules, making it a time consuming exercise to reach agreements.

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Prominent visitor

Minister of Trade and Industry visits Space Norway in Dulles, USA

Minister Jan Christian Vestre visiting Northrop Grumman. Here with Norway's Ambassador to the USA, Anniken Krutnes, defense attaché Odd-Harald Hagen, Oddveig Tretterud from Space Norway and two representatives from Northrop Grumman. Foto: NFD

Minister of Trand and Industry Jan Christian Vestre visited the US in September 2022 . The purpose of the visit was to strengthen the historically deep industrial relations between the two countries. The agenda was further and more targeted cooperation within green tech and opportunities for Norwegian businesses.

The Minister visited Northrop Grumman in Dulles, Virginia on 8th september together with Ambassador Anniken Krutnes. They received an orientation on the building of Space Norway’s Arctic satellites. Space Norway entered an agreement with Northrop Grumman in 2019 on the building of two large satellites with military and civillian broadband communication in the Arctic. The satellites will be launched by SpaceX in mid 2024.

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Press release

Space Norway builds radar satellite system for real-time maritime surveillance

Pressemelding: Space Norway bygger satelittsystem for sanntidsovervåking av norske havområder

On the 25th of August 2022 Space Norway AS signed contracts with vendors and will immediately start building a radar satellite system optimized for maritime surveillance in Norwegian areas of interest.

The payloads will be developed and built by Norwegian suppliers, while the satellite bus and the radar antenna will be built in the UK. The first satellite will be launched early 2025. In the following years, the plan is to launch a number of radar satellites to establish a constellation.

The satellite system named MicroSAR is unique in the way it can detect relatively small vessels in a very large area simultaneously. As of today we don’t know about any radar satellite systems with the same mix of capabilities.

Norway’s sea areas are seven times larger than the Norwegian land area. The Arctic and the High North is Norway’s most important strategic area of interest. This puts strong requirements on situational awareness in these areas. AIS (Automatic Identification System) has for many years been used for maritime surveillance. The challenge is that AIS is a system that requires the vessels themselves to send the required and correct AIS Information. Hence, AIS is a system based on cooperation. Today we estimate that 5 % of the vessels either does not send out AIS Information or are transmitting false information. Satellites with a radar, such as MicroSAR, will be able to detect these vessels independent of the use of AIS. MicroSAR satellites will bring an AIS Receiver to correlate radar detections with AIS Information.

The MicroSAR System is optimized for covering Norwegian needs. However, it will also offer and deliver maritime surveillance services in a global market in the same way as other radar satellites in space today, including surveillance of ship traffic, combating illegal fishing, search and rescue and oil spill detection.

Space Norway works closely with the Norwegian Armed Forces who will be the main customer and buy services and products from MicroSAR when in operation.

Space Norway also work in close cooperation with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT). KSAT establishes, operates, and owns the MicroSAR Ground System, utilizing their existing global network. On behalf of Space Norway, they will provide services related to satellite operations and downlink of MicroSAR data. KSAT will also be responsible for marketing and sales of MicroSAR services and products as part of their portfolio, both in a national and an international market.

The Satellite System will be owned and controlled by Space Norway. This gives Norway an important strategic independent capability under national control to cover their needs for maritime surveillance.

Space Norway has signed contracts with the following vendors to build the first MicroSAR Satellite:

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) is a UK company with long experience in building satellites. SSTL will deliver the satellite platform and be responsible for integration of the payloads on board. SSTL will also be responsible for building the radar antenna through their sub-contractor Oxford Space Systems (OSS).

 

The payloads will be developed and produced by the Norwegian companies WideNorth, Eidsvoll Electronics (EIDEL), Kongsberg Seatex and Norwegian Defence research Establishment (FFI). Hence, the project will also contribute significantly to business development of Norwegian companies.

 

Space Norway’s current plans are to launch the first satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 as a Rideshare. When establishing a constellation, the satellites will be launched on dedicated launchers. The establishment of Andøya Spaceport may result in future MicroSAR satellites being launched from Norway.

 

The MicroSAR satellites will follow polar orbits in various orbital planes at an altitude of about 600 km and will weigh about 300 kg.

Contact person:

Dag H Stølan
CSO and Director Infrastructure
Phone: +47 400 29 601
E-mail: dag-hugo.stolan@spacenorway.no

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ASBM

Preparing to launch

A group of engineers and operators from Space Norway are currently visiting the British satellite operator Avanti in Goonhilly in Cornwall, to attend satellite operations courses. The team is strengthening their competence in satellite control and operations as a preparation for the upcoming launch of the ASBM (ASBM, Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission) satellites in 2024.

Satellite communications is understandably associated with strict security requirements and require highly dependable ground systems. The satellite operations control centre monitors the satellites 24/7. Telemetry is downloaded from the satellites and processed to ensure that all systems are operating per specification. The satellite operators work continuously in conjunction with the customers to qualify the mission requirements. The uniqueness of ASBM due to its highly elliptical choice of orbit as well as the close collaboration with its international partners Inmarsat, the Norwegian Armed Forces and the US Space Command, places significance on the development of a solid organization for satellite operations.

The Norwegian engineers are trained for a duration of two months at the British operator Avanti. Avanti was chosen for this assignment because it utilizes the same satellite operations software as Space Norway has implemented for ASBM. By participating in this training program, Space Norway ensures that its operations team holds solid competence in satellite operations prior to launching the satellites in the summer of 2024. Birger Johansen is leading the engineers from Space Norway and KSAT, and he believes they have benefited greatly from attending this training program in Goonhilly. – Our personnel collaborate very well with the satellite operators from Avanti. We have met persons with Avanti who hold a similar mindset as what we are used to from our organizations. There is a flat hierarchical structure in the company, and they share the same approach to problem-solving. The cultural similarities enable the training to be particularly efficient in readying our team for operating the satellites after launch, and contributes to significantly reducing the operational risk, states a satisfied Johansen.

The two Norwegian HEO-satellites shall be operational within one and a half year. They represent the first satellites from Western space industry to circulate the Earth in high-elliptical orbits across the two poles.

The ground stations have already been built in Tromsø and at Bardufoss and are ready to receive and process the information coming from the two satellites. Space Norway and KSAT are collaborating closely to prepare a round-the-clock, 24/7 organization for operating the ground stations once the satellites are operational in orbit.

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ASBM ground stations

An important test

Viktig test av bakkestasjoner i ASBM-programmet

The HEOSAT-project has reached a key milestone and began end-to-end testing of the ground segment (for the satellite system) during the second half of June.

In the summer of 2024 two large satellites will be launched into a highly-elliptical orbit going across the north pole. ASBM (Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission) is Space Norway’s major initiative to pioneer providing broadband communication to the Arctic region.

During the construction of the two satellites there is a major test program implemented to ensure that all the equipment onboard is built to sustain the extreme conditions offered in a space environment and experienced during a launch. The testing involves exposing the individual satellite components to temperatures, radiation levels and vibration levels equivalent of those experienced during launch and in space.

During the construction of the two satellites there is a major test program implemented to ensure that all the equipment onboard is built to sustain the extreme conditions offered in a space environment and experienced during a launch. The testing involves exposing the individual satellite components to temperatures, radiation levels and vibration levels equivalent of those experienced during launch and in space.

The purpose of the ongoing end-to-end testing of the ground segment is to secure that the ground stations are properly connected with the customers such that all communication and exchange of data, for example ephemeris, telemetry and commands, are transferred according to plan.

The two-week long test campaign involves teams of personnel from Space Norway, the satellite provider Northrop Grumman and the ground segment provider KSAT. The customers are also an active part of the test campaign, and representatives of the Norwegian and US Armed Forces as well as Inmarsat are standby to confirm data reception at their respective ends, as well as ready to report any possible deviations from specification. In this respect, the end-to-end test campaign serves as a first full-scale test of the supply chain from the satellite operations control center to the customers.