Kongsberg gears up satellite data activities

(L. to r.): Rolf Skår, Norwegian Space Center, Rolf Skatteboe, president of KSS and Tom Gerhardsen, chairman of the Board of the new company.

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace will be playing a more central role as a supplier of satellite data, thanks to the establishment of Kongsberg Satellite Services AS in Tromsø. Counting those at Kongsberg Spacetec in Tromsø, each year 150 employees will be selling satellite data and computer systems for downloading and managing satellite data worth approximately MNOK 150.

Kongsberg Satellite Services AS (KSS) was officially established in Tromsø on 24 January. The chairman of the new company's Board, Tom Gerhardsen (president of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA), remarked that the establishment of KSS is a natural extension of KDA's activities in Tromsø.


There was complete agreement that establishing Kongsberg Satellite Services in Tromsø will make the city even more important as an aerospace city. (L. to r.): Rolf Skår, Norwegian Space Center, Rolf Skatteboe, president of KSS and Tom Gerhardsen, chairman of the Board of the new company.

"We have been active in Tromsø for years through our subsidiary Kongsberg Spacetec, a successful business that has proved to be a good investment for us. We see the establishment of KSS as an equal joint venture with the Norwegian Space Center as a step forward for the aerospace community that has emerged in Tromsø", states Gerhardsen.

Rolf Skår of the Norwegian Space Center describes the establishment of Kongsberg Satellite Services as a milestone.

"Aerospace activities in Tromsø and on Svalbard will all benefit from this co-operation. Moreover, we are repatriating the Swedish interests in the Tromsø Satellite Station as well as the US interests that Lockheed Martin had in the antenna facilities on Svalbard. That should put Norway in an excellent position compared with its competitors in Alaska and Kiruna. What is more, Svalbard is absolutely unique since it is the only place that can "see" all the passes made by satellites in polar orbit", adds Skår.

Rolf Skatteboe, the new president of Kongsberg Satellite Services, and Bjørn Kanck, his counterpart at Kongsberg Spacetec, are confident that both companies stand to gain from working together.