Space Norway (former Norwegian Space Centre Properties AS) is a limited liability company 100 % owned by the Norwegian Government. The company was established in 1995, as a subsidiary of the Norwegian Space Centre, to handle Norwegian Space Centre real estates. In 2011 the company´s mission was changed to develop, own, and operate space-related critical infrastructure serving Norwegian interests, not available from commercial entities. The activities are expected to create value in the long term. Thus, the operations shall be commercially sound and efficient. Space Norway has 57 employees as of November 2023.

Space Norway has since 2015 lead and participated in several ESA activities addressing various aspects of the satellite component of the VHF Data Exchange System (VDES), has taken a leading role in the satellite system design activities in IALA and ITU, and is an active member of the VDES Alliance. The 17 kg NorSat-2 satellite was launched July 14th, 2017, as the world´s first VDES SDR payload in space and it is still operational. The payload was specified and procured by SPN and developed and delivered by Kongsberg Discovery - Seatex. Together with Kongsberg Discovery - Seatex, Space Norway has demonstrated several VDES services in the Arctic on active vessels. Pre-operational maritime communication services were demonstrated using the VDES payload onboard NorSat-2 as part of the ESA funded activity the VDE-SAT Applications and Services Platform (VASP) project in 2022.

Space Norway has years of experience of operating in the space sector, below are examples of projects and missions:

• Space Norway has been a major contributor to the development and standardization of the satellite part of the VHF Data Exchange System (VDES), and is the owner and operator of the world´s first VDE-SAT test-payload in space (onboard Norsat-2, launched in 2017)
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• Space Norway was the VDES CEPT coordinator to the ITU World Radio Conference in November 2019 which allocated frequencies to satellite VDES
• The company has demonstrated as first in the world the following VDES services:
• Ice chart broadcasting
• Uplink position reporting at 88N in the Barents sea
• AIS ship position re-broadcasting at the North Pole
• Re-broadcasting of EGNOS messages in the Arctic
• The company has been or is active with the following ESA VDES activities:
• VDES downlink verification
• VDES Testbed
• AMNAS navigation study
• VNADS navigation message broadcasting
• VASP VDES service demonstrations
• SBVT VDES transceiver
• Satellite testing of a prototype omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna
• Space Norway is building a constellation of two satellites in highly elliptical and inclined orbits (HEO) for provision of pan-Arctic broadband communications (internally funded).
• Space Norway is responsible for developing a high-performance microsatellite with a synthetic aperture radar main payload for ship-detection (internally funded).
• Space Norway is a subcontractor to an ESA project developing a 1.4 Gbps DVB-S2X modem.
• Space Norway is a subcontractor to an ESA project developing IoT elements.