2026 may be a bit pessimistic, though. Isar might be building stages right now, and start testing within weeks of the opening november 2nd. If so, 2024 is achievable.
The King in Council decided today that the responsibility for issuing permits to launch rockets from Norwegian soil is delegated to the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority.- With the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority as the national licensing authority, we get a competent and dedicated professional environment, which can make good assessments for launches from Norwegian soil. This is an important piece in the work to ensure that Norway will be a responsible, predictable and competitive provider of satellite launches, says Industry Minister Cecilie Myrseth.The launch of objects into space from Norwegian territory is subject to Act 13 June 1969 no. 38, which stipulates that permission from the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries is required for such launches. In practice, only Andøya Space's launches of research rockets from Andøya and Svalbard have so far been covered by this provision. Permission for this has been issued by the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries itself. Andøya Spaceport has entered into an agreement with Isar Aerospace, which this year plans to launch the first satellite from Norwegian soil into space. These are larger rockets, which require a more comprehensive permit regime than has been used for the smaller research rockets from Andøya and Svalbard. There is therefore a need for a dedicated authority that can assess applications and issue permits.Since 1 January 2023, the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority has been the national supervisory authority for space activities. This responsibility is now extended to also include issuing permits for launching rockets. The tasks covered by the authority's responsibility include supervision of and permission for launch suppliers, and supervision of and payload assessment of satellites. In addition to the responsibility of being the licensing authority for launches, the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority has also been given administrative responsibility for the Space Registry Convention of 12 November 1974. This is an international agreement which, among other things, obliges Norway to keep an overview of Norwegian-owned satellites, and to report these to the UN registry.
