Space Business Podcast #163 | Spaceports | Ketil Olsen, Andøya Space
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Feb 4, 2026 Ketil Olsen, CEO of Andøya Space and former Vice Admiral, leads Norway’s long-standing northern launch site. He talks about Andøya’s 1962 roots, the move from sounding rockets to orbital launches, upgrades for bigger rockets, customer deals like Isar Aerospace, regulatory and insurance hurdles, technology safeguards with the U.S., and plans to expand pads and build a local space ecosystem.
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Match Market Timing Before Building A Spaceport
- Build national capability only when market timing aligns with technology miniaturization and demand for small sats.
- Leverage existing infrastructure and state backing to enter the orbital launch market prudently.
From Small Sounding Rockets To 100-Tonne Vehicles
- Transitioning to orbital launches required new pads because rockets grew from ~6–7 tonnes to 80–100 tonnes.
- Andøya built a new foundation while ISAR Aerospace constructed their processing equipment on top of it.
Spaceports Support European Strategic Autonomy
- European launch capacity is scarce, and domestic orbital options support strategic autonomy for satellite deployment.
- Norway can help solve a European gap by providing launches from European soil to meet growing demand.