The Mimir-1 and AISSat-4 satellites were launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday 31st March at 13:02 CEST. Mimir-1 is owned and operated by Space Norway, while AISSat-4 is owned by the Norwegian Coastal Administration and operated by Space Norway.
Both satellites were deployed at the correct altitudes for these low Earth orbit missions, at approximately 500 km and 600 km respectively, and contact has been successfully established with both spacecraft.
The first signals from Mimir-1 were received at 16:50 CET on Sunday afternoon. At that time, the satellite was passing over the South Pole and its signals were captured by the Troll ground station in Antarctica. Using Space Norway’s multi-orbit capability, the signals were relayed to the THOR 7 satellite in geostationary orbit at an altitude of around 36,000 km. From there, they were downlinked to the company’s spaceport in Nittedal and routed to the operations centre at Skøyen in Oslo. Both the solar panels and the Yagi antenna have been successfully deployed.
“We now have our own laboratory in space. I am extremely proud of the team that has made this possible. Two dedicated groups, each responsible for one of the satellites, have both done an outstanding job, and this confirms that Space Norway possesses world-class expertise in satellite operations,” says Marte Kalveland, Director Earth Observation and Innovation at Space Norway.
Signals from AISSat-4 were received at 14:14 CET. At that time, AISSat-4 was passing over the High North, and the signals were captured by the ground station in Vardø.
“These have been some very exciting days and hours. Even though we have carried out similar operations several times before, a launch is always a special moment,” says Ivar Spydevold, CEO of StatSat. “We now look forward to further strengthening our delivery to the Norwegian Coastal Administration, supporting its important societal mission of monitoring maritime traffic in Norwegian waters,” he adds.
The Mimir-1 satellite will serve as an in-orbit test platform. The coming days will be devoted to around-the-clock operation to stabilise the platform. A few weeks after that, we expect to operations to start. For AISSat-4, a few days of testing will be followed by delivery of AIS-signals to the Norwegian Coastal Administration.
