SFL to Ship Speedy Deployment AISSat-4 for Norway’s Increasing Maritime Surveillance
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 30, 2025
SFL Missions Inc. has secured a contract from the Norwegian Area Company (NOSA) to develop AISSat-4, a ship-tracking nanosatellite scheduled for launch inside a 12 months. The mission goals to bolster Norway’s maritime monitoring community by including capability as present satellites method the top of their service lives.
Constructed on SFL’s confirmed SPARTAN 6U platform, AISSat-4 will carry a single Computerized Identification System (AIS) receiver developed by Kongsberg Seatex of Trondheim. The SPARTAN bus has a powerful monitor report, with 18 industrial satellites launched to this point.
SFL’s vertically built-in construction permits speedy improvement, testing, and deployment. “We now have in depth expertise in implementing AIS missions, and subsequently we have now the experience and design heritage wanted to implement the AISSat-4 mission on a brief schedule,” mentioned Dr. Robert E. Zee, SFL Missions Director and CEO.
The AISSat-4 satellite tv for pc will seize as much as 1.5 million distinctive AIS alerts each day, even in busy maritime corridors. It’s going to reinforce Norway’s Blue Justice Ocean Surveillance Program, which permits nations to share space-based AIS knowledge to fight unlawful fishing and maritime crime globally.
Norway operates one of many world’s most superior space-based marine surveillance methods by means of NOSA and the Norwegian Coastal Administration. “The societal advantages we achieve from accumulating AIS info from satellites is important. It’s subsequently essential that we guarantee the upkeep of this functionality,” mentioned Coastal Administration Director Einar Vik Arset.
The Norwegian area AIS fleet started with AISSat-1 in 2010, which collected knowledge for 12 years. It was adopted by AISSat-2, NorSat-1 and -2 in 2017, NorSat-3 in 2021, NorSat-TD in 2023, and NorSat-4 in early 2025. These satellites built-in more and more superior applied sciences together with radar detectors, optical cameras, laser communications, and fifth-generation AIS receivers.
The upcoming AISSat-4 satellite tv for pc will focus solely on AIS knowledge assortment, persevering with the legacy of space-based maritime situational consciousness initiated over 15 years in the past in partnership with SFL.
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