KSAT can see the whole world from Tromsø

Somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 satellites orbit the Earth, depending on which sources you check. Together, they can tell us almost anything about what is happening on the planet below, from climate change, the ocean surface and weather systems to high-resolution images of specific areas. Some can even ‘see’ in the dark and through clouds.

Downloading and using this data requires huge dish antennas that can communicate with the satellites. No company in the world has greater expertise and capacity in this field than Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), headquartered in Tromsø.

The company downloads the data and passes it on to end users, ranging from public authorities to private individuals, for a wide range of purposes.

Satellites help us understand weather systems, manage flight paths and shipping routes, monitor rainforest deforestation, assess the extent of oil spills at sea and identify areas to evacuate when a hurricane or tornado is approaching. To name just a few uses. In an increasingly unsettled world, it has also become more important for countries to monitor what is happening close to home, whether at border crossings or at sea.

With several thousand satellites orbiting the Earth, equipped with a wide range of sensors, they can provide data on virtually anything. Many companies own and communicate with their own satellites. KSAT does not own a single satellite, but can communicate with them all. That is the Tromsø-based company’s unique competitive advantage.

‘Many companies provide data from their own satellites, but we collect and combine data from a wide range of satellites. We know which satellites are over which areas at any given time, so we are well placed to bring together the information and services our customers need,’ says Ekstedt.

That is why KSAT has customers around the world. The US has always been an important market, and the company is now seeing strong growth in Asia and Europe. This is partly driven by the unstable geopolitical situation.

Ekstedt explains that in stable times, KSAT delivers large volumes of data for climate monitoring and research. Now it also provides situational awareness, with recipients needing data and analysis quickly, in near real time.

‘There has been a shift in the global balance of power, prompting Europe to build its own capabilities, and we are expanding cooperation with countries we have not worked as closely with before. Countries want to know what is happening in their waters and along their borders,’ says Ekstedt.

To understand how Norway became a major player in satellite data, we need to understand polar-orbiting satellites. These satellites orbit from north to south, passing over both poles on each journey around the Earth and completing 14 to 16 orbits a day. As the Earth rotates, the satellites capture images of the entire globe over time. The further north (or south) a satellite ground station is located, the better its contact with these satellites.

Norway recognised early on the importance of monitoring our vast ocean areas and the country’s strategic location for receiving satellite data. As early as 1967, two years before the Moon landing, Tromsø Satellite Station received its first signal from space.

But since the poles are the only points on Earth that polar-orbiting satellites pass over on every orbit, it was Svalbard that truly cemented Norway’s position in the satellite sector. This was where NASA and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites wanted to explore the possibility of building a station.

‘So people climbed the mountain outside Longyearbyen and confirmed that, yes, we could build antennas here. It was a collaboration between Europe and the US, with KSAT in the middle,’ says Ekstedt.

It started with a few antennas on Platåberget outside Longyearbyen. Today, there are several hundred, making SvalSat the world’s largest commercial ground station.

Our collaboration with KSAT dates back to the 1990s. We helped establish ground-based antennas that enabled faster delivery of satellite data to customers. We also helped establish a subsea cable between Svalbard and Andøya, ensuring sufficient capacity to download satellite data at SvalSat, the ground station operated by KSAT.

Regional Director Anne Berit Figenschau at our Arctic office (Troms and Finnmark) says that KSAT has been a capable and inspiring client, delivering high quality at every stage.

'It has been important to enable profitable international growth for KSAT while also delivering significant benefits to society in climate, security and emergency preparedness,' says Figenschau.

KSAT also highlights its collaboration with our international offices. We have helped the company connect with relevant players in different markets and understand each market before establishing a presence there.

'We recently opened a new office in Japan, and working with Innovation Norway opened doors and gave us understanding and insight. They worked closely with us to develop new industry in a market that was new to us. That was crucial,' says Ekstedt.

In Japan, the private space company ispace is among KSAT’s customers. KSAT supports communications between lunar landers and mission control in Japan. This service is critical to helping the company achieve its ambitions. On its website, ispace describes its vision for a lunar community with 1,000 permanent residents and 10,000 visitors a year by 2040, with the company contributing by building space-based infrastructure.

This makes fast, precise communication from the Moon to Earth essential. KSAT offers the world’s first purpose-built ground network for lunar communications. The antennas are specifically designed to meet the requirements of future lunar missions and are spaced evenly around the globe to ensure continuous coverage.

KSAT will soon also send its first antenna into space. The aim is to reduce data transmission delays to an absolute minimum.

A lot has happened since Tromsø Satellite Station received its first signal in 1967, and since a handful of pioneers scrambled up Platåberget on Svalbard to see whether they could build antennas there.

‘It’s exciting to think that Norway has KSAT thanks to these pioneers. We are the world’s largest company in our field, with a vast network of antennas around the globe. That’s down both to our location in the far north and to people who dared to turn bold ideas into reality,’ says Ekstedt.