The Nordland county municipality has signed a letter of intent with the Bavarian State Administration in Germany. The area of cooperation is the aerospace industry.
Bayern is sometimes called the Silicon Valley of Europe and is an important innovation center. One area where a lot of exciting innovation is happening is the aerospace industry. There is indeed a link between Norway and Germany in this exciting area. Among other things, the private German company ISAR Aerospace from Munich and Bavaria has already been established in Andøya and agreements have been concluded to launch several small satellites from there. The idea with the agreement for us, is specifically to build within the framework of Spaceport Andøy and create new and exciting mission jobs in Nordland. Thomas Norfall says that the fact that Spaceport Andøy is successful is also important nationally and for Norway as a space industry. On Friday, he signed a Letter of Intent between Nordland and Bavaria with Director-General Dr. Sabine Garroth of Bavaria.
Andøya Space CEO Ketil Olsen believes that it is very positive to establish space cooperation between the regional authorities of the two regions.
– Our agreement with Isar Aerospace is purely commercial, but it is very important to establish cooperation at the governmental level. They help to politically anchor space-related activities, and can lay the foundation for cooperation in several areas. The development now taking place in the space industry is important for the whole of Europe, and it is good that the county municipality is actively involved as a facilitator, he says.
Andøya Space 365 million NOK from the government in 2021 to invest in space, and more specifically the launch base there – Andøya Spaceport.
Several countries are now fighting to become the most important European satellite launch base, including Scotland, Portugal and Sweden. Satellites are very important in a number of areas such as telecommunications, navigation, climate, environment and Earth observation.
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