NASA hands over northernmost laser ranging station

The US space agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has handed over the world's northernmost satellite laser ranging system to the Norwegian Mapping Authority, the authority said. This completes the geodetic Earth observatory in Ny-Ålesund after 15 years of development. For the first time in Norway, all four space geodesy techniques are at one site.

Satellite laser ranging works by firing laser light up from the ground at reflectors mounted on satellites. The time the signal takes to return gives the distance to the satellite with high precision, the authority said.

The observatory now hosts four techniques: VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry), SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging), GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and DORIS (Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite). They each measure a different part of the Earth system, ranging from far-off stars to satellites and the planet's centre of mass, and together they underpin precise positioning and monitoring of change on Earth.

NASA has not delivered a station of this kind before, the authority said. With similar stations abroad, it helps to make satellite orbits more accurate and to fix the Earth's centre of mass better. That matters for services such as GPS, Galileo, EGNOS (the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) and Copernicus.

Senior engineer Ole Johan Ekeli Klingan follows the satellite Stella from the control room as it passes over the North Pole at about 800 km altitude. He said the laser gives data not previously available on how satellites move and how their height changes over the polar regions. He said it also lets the team measure ice thickness and sea level more exactly.

Per Erik Opseth, the authority's director of positioning, navigation and timing, said it is exactly 20 years since the idea first emerged.

The minister of local government and regional development, Bjørnar Selnes Skjæran, and NASA director Julie Robinson were among those at the ceremony. Skjæran described the site as the most northerly and perhaps among the most significant observatories in a large international network, and as Norway's single biggest contribution to accurate navigation and positioning.

The completion comes as the United Nations works to strengthen the global geodesy supply chain. In August 2026, UN member states agreed to start an international consultation on governance of the infrastructure behind satellite-based services.

Coverage: Ny-Ålesund Research Station