Andøya Rocket Range
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Andøya Rocket Range is the name of a rocket launch site on Andøya island (the northernmost in the Vesterålen archipelago) in Andøy municipality in northern Norway. It is located at 69°17'39 "northern latitude and 16°01'15"eastern length. Since 1962 over 1200 sounding rockets of all known configurations have been launched from this site.
Andøya Rocket Range is a civilian facility owned 90% by the the Royal Ministry of Trade and Industry, Norway, and 10% by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. It operates on a commercial basis.
From 1997, a second launch site at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard was established, enabling scientists to launch sounding rocket straight in the polar cusp.
A ground based lidar observatory, ALOMAR (Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research) opened in 1994, and is considered unique in atmospheric research in the Arctic. The range is also host of northern Europe's largest MF-radar.
Andøya Rocket Range has also been involved in building Norway's first student satellites, the nCube-series (*nCube website).
In 1995, a rocket from Andøya caused high alert in Russia. They thought it might be a nuclear missile launched from a submarine. President Boris Yeltsin was alerted for a possible counter strike, when the Russians understood that it was not heading towards Russia. There were press photos all over the world of Yeltsin with the launch command briefcase.
www.rocketrange.no/arr/index.html
Andøya Rocket Range is a civilian facility owned 90% by the the Royal Ministry of Trade and Industry, Norway, and 10% by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. It operates on a commercial basis.
From 1997, a second launch site at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard was established, enabling scientists to launch sounding rocket straight in the polar cusp.
A ground based lidar observatory, ALOMAR (Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research) opened in 1994, and is considered unique in atmospheric research in the Arctic. The range is also host of northern Europe's largest MF-radar.
Andøya Rocket Range has also been involved in building Norway's first student satellites, the nCube-series (*nCube website).
In 1995, a rocket from Andøya caused high alert in Russia. They thought it might be a nuclear missile launched from a submarine. President Boris Yeltsin was alerted for a possible counter strike, when the Russians understood that it was not heading towards Russia. There were press photos all over the world of Yeltsin with the launch command briefcase.
www.rocketrange.no/arr/index.html
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 69°17'41"N 16°1'23"E
- (former) Ammunition Storage 2.3 km
- Andøya airbase 3.5 km
- Harstad/Narvik Airport in Evenes 92 km
- Bardufoss Airbase 101 km
- Setermoen military camp 104 km
- ORP "Grom" (H-71) 108 km
- Battery Dietl. Engeloya. 153 km
- Bodø airbase 236 km
- Bodø Airport 236 km
- Place of sinking К-278 "Коmsomolets" 506 km
- Rocket Launch Position 0.2 km
- Andøy Rådhus 4.3 km
- Andøya Lufthavn Terminal 4.4 km
- Runway 14/32 4.4 km
- Runway 12/31 4.6 km
- Andoya VOR-DME (AND) 4.7 km
- Andenes Lighthouse 4.9 km
- Andøy Port 5.5 km
- Platform 8.8 km
- Andøya 24 km