satellite station norwegian known norwegian satellite earth station located norway facility owned joint venture addition hosting serving thirty satellites acts center point operations provides backbone services high originally proposed station established close cooperation located adjacent inception served low earth orbit leo satellites operated lesser extent nasa leo satellites norway non membership later caused ground station gradual increase operations occurred partially sold merged form history establishment use proposals station early concept build real time station allow simultaneous observations satellites sounding rockets idea backed norway ideas real time station arose included project year space program similar proposals northern sweden race started norwegian swedish interests gain support station norway budgetary limitations prohibiting scale station instead support gained united_states canada project backed choice location stations tied located planned time working program seen natural cooperation partner nasa designed nasa decided supply equipment station operational august parallel work working gain support station degree urgency wanted facility completed time launch spacecraft working establishment agreement build station approved mid reason norwegian support opportunity training pulse code digital computing station chance apply latest sam major planning issue need station argued fully capable delivering system instead wanted minimize risk buying united_states awarded contract obligation support norwegian technology agreed purchase suitable foreign computer successfully manufacture new built completed april computer built europe world integrated circuits successful developers established technology contract resulted providing low earth stations large portion norwegian space budget platforms allowed development technology worked tandem international center study zone established started teaching year took observatory cosmic university fields excellence original contract lasted july low earth orbit program terminated proposed closing remaining customers provide sufficient revenue operations viable norway declined join resulted little hope choosing cooperate norwegian earth station looked outright selling station offer turned closed started planning use station nasa program sufficient funding government secured mid successful lobby operation emphasized possibility environmental observation norway territorial waters million norwegian nok granted upgrades norway entered negotiations soon nasa started discussions european stations serve members sweden pushed sweden location northern station discarded norway decision join norway expanded exclusive economic zone nautical miles increasing country land sea area million square kilometers reserves fish oil norwegian government conduct surveillance commenced work establish earth station nasa approved parliament early processing computer developed cooperation tailored analyze synthetic radar named failed days time minutes operational use station took renewed interest satellite station early 1980s proposed norway join program started process norway member station received investments nok million 1980s organized foundation took goal project create technical spin offs successful company employees time bought global manufacturer earth observation ground stations established foundation july protection immediately took followed suit upgraded able operate established subsidiary facilities year converted limited company half sold aim operate fully commercial enterprise major contract canadian appointed director plans launched try win ground station contract nasa planned nasa considering locating ground station greenland antarctica sweden invited nasa delegation visit nasa started negotiating contract establish ground station satellite use launched april bought ownership lockheed martin ownership february merged interests satellite technology operations sole owner legally continuation operating company opened operations owned operated equally owned agency tied particular operator satellites communicate multiple satellites reducing costs compared dedicated ground stations typical satellite data delivered end customer thirty minutes site able communicate leo satellites fourteen unlike communicate stations communicate complex allows communicate satellites connected system operation center responsible backup scheduling conflict resolution addition network planning customer support ground station control facilities use shared ground services common protocol communication similar design increase flexibility reduce costs risk serve thirty missions contain multi frequency band addition customer owned reception tracking control systems acts local user terminal system search rescue combination customers download data twice orbit times day minute maximum delay ground stations able communicate leo satellites connected
Tromsø Satellite Station