Space Norway marks 40 years of satellite operationsat Nittedal Teleport
Space Norway is celebrating 40 years of operations at Nittedal Teleport, one of Europe’s largest and most northerly satellite earth stations. Located just outside Oslo, the site has grown from a pioneering television uplink facility into a strategically important European hub for satellite communications, supporting broadcast, broadband and critical data services across international markets.
Opened in 1986, Nittedal began with two 13-metre antennas uplinking NRK television for distribution to Svalbard and oil platforms in the North Sea. Swedish TV1 and TV2 were also received and redistributed to Norwegian cable networks. Today, Nittedal covers more than 70 decares and operates more than 50 satellite antennas. Around 55 systems engineers and operators monitor broadcast and data traffic 24 hours a day.
“Forty years of Nittedal is a story of constant change,” said Rune Jensen, Acting CEO at Space Norway. “The site started by carrying television to some of Norway’s hardest-to-reach locations. Today it supports broadcasting, broadband and critical data services on a completely different scale.”
Nittedal expanded quickly after opening. A defining moment came in 1992, when Telenor acquired the Marco Polo 2 satellite from British Satellite Broadcasting. Renamed THOR 1, it became the first satellite in what would develop into the THOR fleet.
Nittedal’s international role grew further during the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, when additional antennas and mobile uplink systems were deployed to support global broadcast traffic. Around 800,000 minutes of communications traffic were carried from six locations using 16 satellites during the Games. With the addition of THOR 2 and THOR 3 in the 1990’s, Nittedal became a key technical centre for the rapid growth of commercial satellite television across the Nordic region. It was also the period when the site moved decisively from analogue to digital technology.
Digital encoding, compression and multiplexing transformed the teleport in the 2000s, while THOR 5 and THOR 6 expanded capacity for digital television and HDTV. The next major step came with THOR 7 in 2015. Its Ka-band capacity helped shift Nittedal beyond traditional television and into high-capacity broadband for maritime customers, cruise ships and offshore installations. Today, the teleport handles satellite signals for television, radio, telephony and data, supporting services that ultimately reach users through satellite, terrestrial networks, IPTV and online platforms.
Nittedal also forms part of the infrastructure supporting Space Norway’s own satellite operations. Tracking, Telemetry and Command systems provide communications with satellites in the THOR fleet, linking spacecraft with Space Norway’s satellite control operations. 2026 has been designated the “Year of Space” by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Cecilie Myrseth, and Space Norway’s THOR fleet is still under development. The launch of THOR 8 is scheduled to take place in 2027.
The global satellite sector is undergoing another period of rapid development, driven by new satellite architectures, high-capacity broadband systems, growing requirements for resilient communications and increasing integration between space-based and terrestrial networks. For Nittedal, that means continuing the pattern established over its first 40 years, adapting existing infrastructure, introducing new services and supporting new generations of satellite systems.
