Regulations

Norway is a party to the international Space Treaties, and the launching of objects into outer space is governed by the Act relating to the launching of objects from Norwegian territory into outer space of 1962 (only available in Norwegian).

Currently, there is no Norwegian regulation covering safety investigations related to space activities. The Civil Aviation Authority Norway (CAA-N) grants licenses for operators conducting launch activities, Launch Operators (LOP) and Launch Site Operators (LSO). The licenses given contains terms and conditions addressing safety investigations, including notification of accidents and the preservation of data related to launch activities.

The Norwegian government has presented a draft new Space Act, broadly covering space activities, which is expected to be adopted in 2025. The draft includes provisions on safety investigations. Any safety investigation undertaken by the NSIA, will, as far as applicable, follow the provisions of relevant regulations for safety investigations within civil aviation, also before the new Space Act is adopted. The draft new Space Act can be found here (only available in Norwegian).