Establishes new company

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) and the Norwegian Space Centre are merging their satellite activities on Svalbard and in Tromsø to establish Kongsberg Satellite Services AS, a new company jointly and equally owned by the two enterprises. The goal is to improve the satellite services, including Earth observation services, provided by Svalbard and Tromsø.

The company will have some 50 employees in Tromsø and on Svalbard and have a turnover of roughly MNOK 70. Tom Gerhardsen, president of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, will chair the company's Board of Directors, and Rolf Skatteboe has been appointed president.

The company will serve and download data from satellites, and process data from the most important Earth observation satellites operated by NASA of the US and ESA and Eumetsat of Europe.