EISCAT - Sodankylä, Finland

Andøya Rocket Range is a rocket launch site and rocket range on Andøya island (the northernmost in the Vesterålen archipelago) in Andøy municipality in northern Norway. Since 1962 over 1,200 sounding rockets of all known configurations have been launched from this site.

Andøya Rocket Range is a civilian facility owned 90% by the Royal Ministry of Trade and Industry, Norway, and 10% by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. It operates on a commercial basis.

From 1997, a second launch site at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard was established, enabling scientists to launch sounding rocket straight in the polar cusp.

A ground based lidar observatory, ALOMAR (Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research) opened in 1994, and is considered unique in atmospheric research in the Arctic. The range is also host of northern Europe's largest MF-radar.

Andøya Rocket Range has also been involved in building Norway's first student satellites, the nCube-series (*nCube website), and hosts a number of student activities like the European Space Camp organized by the Norwegian Association of Young Scientists and The Norwegian Centre for Space Related Education.

In 1995, a rocket from Andøya caused high alert in Russia. They thought it might be a nuclear missile launched from a submarine. President Boris Yeltsin was alerted for a possible counter strike, when the Russians understood that it was not heading towards Russia. There were press photos all over the world of Yeltsin with the launch command briefcase. The Russians were informed in advance about the launch, but this information was lost in the Russian military organization.

SOURCE: Wikipedia Andøya Rocket Range

Andøya Air Station (IATA: ANX, ICAO: ENAN) (Norwegian: Andøya Flystasjon) is situated in the north of Norway, in the municipality of Andøy. At Andøya, the 333 Squadron is based with P-3C Orions. The squadron is Norway's only surveillance squadron and stands as the airborne defence of northern Norway. Andøya Air Station is designed to handle fighters and should it become necessary, fighter squadrons can be deployed to protect this region. Squadron 333 is the only Norwegian squadron still in operation after its initial deployment.

The civil airport Andøya Airport, Andenes and the civilian sounding rocket launch facility Andøya Rocket Range is also located on the island.

The six Orion aircraft primary function is surveillance, mostly in the north and for both military and civilian functions. The planes are also the only that can help ship wrecked far from land. The aircraft also have a lot of cooperation with the Norwegian Coast Guard.

History

The first idea of building a military airport was launched at a NATO meeting in Lisbon in 1951. In March 1952 the Norwegian Minister of Defence, Nils Langhelle announced that the airport was going to be build. There were multiple suggested locations, and the decision fell on the village Haugnes. The entire village with 310 residents was expropriated to give enough area for the airport. The community at Andøy only had 2000 residents at the time, and a large growth was expected.

The first aircraft landing was on September 17, 1954, Douglas Dakota. The air station was operational from the fall 1957. The headquarters were located about 13 km away at Skarsteindalen, as part of NATOs spread tactic. In 1961 the first squadron, the 333, was moved to the air station, from Sola Air Station, with HU-16B Albatross aircraft.

After a bit civilian services were wanted, and April 2, 1964 the first schedules flight was flown by Scandinavian Airlines with a Metropolitan. In 1968 the second runway was finished. In the 1970s the airport became part of the new network of regional airports in Lofoten and Vesterålen with government subsidised operations with de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft seating 20 and operated by Widerøe.

The Albatrosses were replaced in 1969 with P-3B Orion aircraft. Though they lacked the ability to perform work for the Coast Guard and in 1989 they were sold to Spain and replaced with new P-3C aircraft. After the end of the Cold War in the 1990s the air station has been reduced.
Accidents and incidents

On July 31, 1988 four people died when a private Cessna 172 aircraft crashed west of the airport just after take off

External links

Air Force page on Andøya (in Norwegian)

SOURCE: Wikipedia Andøya Air_Station