Space Norway marks 40 years at Nittedal Teleport
September 23, 2026 11.45 Europe/London By Julian Clover


Space Norway is marking 40 years of operations at Nittedal Teleport, which has developed from a television uplink facility into one of Europe’s largest satellite earth stations.

The site, outside Oslo, opened in 1986 with two 13-metre antennas used to uplink NRK television for distribution to Svalbard and North Sea oil platforms. It also received Sweden’s TV1 and TV2 for redistribution through Norwegian cable networks (Norwegian copyright law allowed for the broadcasts as the signal against their neighbours wishes as it was deemed to have entered local airspace).

Nittedal now covers more than 70 decares and operates over 50 satellite antennas, with around 55 engineers and operators monitoring broadcast and data traffic around the clock.

“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.”

The teleport became closely associated with the development of the THOR satellite fleet after Telenor acquired British Satellite Broadcasting’s Marco Polo 2 satellite in 1992. Renamed THOR 1, it became the first satellite in a fleet that subsequently played a significant role in Nordic satellite television.

Nittedal’s international broadcast role expanded during the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, when additional antennas and mobile uplink systems were deployed. Space Norway says around 800,000 minutes of communications traffic were carried from six locations using 16 satellites during the Games.

The arrival of THOR 2 and THOR 3 during the 1990s coincided with the expansion of commercial satellite television in the Nordic region and Nittedal’s transition from analogue to digital technology.

During the following decade, digital encoding, compression and multiplexing reshaped operations at the teleport, while THOR 5 and THOR 6 added capacity for digital television and HDTV.

The launch of THOR 7 in 2015 expanded Nittedal’s role beyond broadcasting. Its Ka-band capacity enabled high-capacity broadband services for maritime users, including cruise ships and offshore installations.

Today, Nittedal carries television, radio, telephony and data services and also supports Space Norway’s satellite operations. Tracking, Telemetry and Command systems at the site provide communications with the THOR fleet.

The fleet is continuing to expand, with THOR 8 scheduled for launch in 2027.

Space Norway says Nittedal’s next phase will reflect the increasing integration of satellite and terrestrial networks, alongside growing demand for high-capacity broadband and resilient communications.