Kongsfjord Telemetry Station
Although owned by ESRO, the facilities were constructed and operated by the Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (NTNF).
However, it was followed up by numerous protests from the Soviet Union, which claimed the installation would violate the demilitarized zone clause of the Svalbard Treaty, as the station had the potential to be used for military satellites and intelligence.
It was considered by US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who saw it as a possible excuse to populate Spitsbergen as a counter-measure to the Soviet mining communities.
However, nothing came of the plans before the International Geophysical Year in 1957–58, when an ionosphere research station was established as Isfjord Radio and moved to Ny-Ålesund in 1963.
[4] In addition to Svalbard, tracking and telemetry stations were built on the Falkland Islands, in Fairbanks, Alaska and in Redu, Belgium.
[6] In January 1964, ESRO started informal discussions with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who stated that they had no initial objections.
[7] By then, supported by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani,[6] ESRO instead proposed situating the station at Longyearbyen because it was less remote and would incur lower costs.
The main motivation was to establish a permanent space technology center in Norway that could stimulate further scientific growth.
[11] To minimize Soviet opposition, Norway attempted to move the debate from the political to the specialist scene, while at the same time establishing a protocol for Norwegian control and operation of the facility.
[6] To achieve this, Norwegian authorities worked towards establishing an inspection procedure to insure that the facilities remained solely used for 'peaceful activities'.
[14] Allowing Soviet inspectors access to the station was discussed politically, but this was quickly discarded as it would establish an unwanted precedent and would undermine the Norwegian sovereignty of the archipelago.
This was carried out to allow time to develop solid counter-policy against the Soviet Union as well as to gain support for the installation to be located at Kongsfjorden outside Ny-Ålesund.
[12] The agreement allowed the station to be located in Ny-Ålesund in exchange for Norwegian authorities building and operating the facility.
However, to minimize Soviet criticism, the ministry was not interested in giving direct guarantees and asked that ESRO solely negotiate with NTNF.
FFI offered to deliver a Simulation for Automatic Machinery, while the alternative was to purchase a PDP-8 computer from Digital Equipment Corporation.
As NTNF was responsible for the country's technological development, they chose to award the contract to FFI on the condition that they pay for a PDP-8 if they were not able to deliver a computer themselves.
[20] Through its history, the station had five managers: Henning Nielsen (1965–67), Roald Søfteland (1967–68), Ewald Øyen (1968–70), Einar Enderud (1970–72) and Kristian Sneltvedt (1972–74).
The facilities in Ny-Ålesund were unsuitable for telemetry with such satellites, as they would operate at a different frequency, the size of the antenna dish was too small and the ground station's geographical position was out of range.
[25] The ground station was located at Rabben, also known as Hamnerabben, a hill 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) west of the settlement in Ny-Ålesund, at the far end of the airport.
This was optimal for low-orbit satellites, allowed for a small antenna dish but gave a low bit rate.
[22] The facility had a Simulation for Automatic Machinery computer built by FFI which allowed for real-time operations with the data.
Communication from the satellites was relayed by radio to Ski and onwards with a leased line to the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
[26] NTNF hired a nurse and had the Amundsen House refitted as a clinic for the duration of the telemetry station's operation.
