In an article titled “Norway’s New Billion-Dollar Industry: NASA on Client List”, published on 8 August 2024 in Finansavisen, Norway’s main financial newspaper, the journalist Margrethe Schmidt Hegnar describes PaleBlue and the company’s activities in the space industry, along with other notable Norwegian companies.

The following is an excerpt from the article.

Almost three years ago, the government allocated NOK 365 million for the development of Andøya Spaceport, and last year the first spaceport for launching satellites on the European mainland opened. As ambitions for the future on Andøya have grown, so has the space industry in Norway shown fast growth. The Norwegian space industry now has a turnover of over ten billion kroner a year.

In Stavanger, a startup has got American NASA on its client list. The company PaleBlue develops VR technology that is used to train astronauts. Over the past ten years, entrepreneur Felix Gorbatsevich and his team have been building technology that teaches you how to behave in zero-gravity space.

With VR, you can move around completely without gravity, and our solution makes it possible to train both on the outside and inside of a spacecraftFelix Gorbatsevich, PaleBlue CEO

The company first started by developing training simulators for commercial diving in the oil & gas offshore industry. But eventually they also began to explore the possibilities in space. After they got the US Navy interested, they were put in touch with NASA.

“This technology has been developed over several years. Our solution makes it possible to train both inside and outside a space station, something not many competitors can offer. Our niche is still small, but the market for this type of digital training is growing. Especially in the private market”, explains the entrepreneur.

PaleBlue has launched its training programs in several parts of the world, from the UK to Singapore. On the investor side, we find, among other entities, the Stavanger-based investment fund Validé.

“Now we are also planning to expand to the Middle East. Our technology can easily be scaled up globally. We have an ambition to tailor our systems for customers as well, something we see a growing demand for. Going forward, we are also looking at the possibilities of using our technology to train robots virtually, not just people” Gorbatsevich explains.

Read the full article at the Finansavisen website (in Norwegian, requires registration).

About Finansavisen
Finansavisen is a Norwegian business newspaper that focuses primarily on finance, economics, and business-related news. It was founded in 1992 by Trygve Hegnar, who is a prominent Norwegian businessman and publisher. The newspaper covers a wide range of topics, including stock market developments, financial analyses, company news, and macroeconomic trends, with a particular focus on the Norwegian market.

About PaleBlue
PaleBlue is a training and simulation company, which has established a unique set of capabilities within 3D, VR, and interactive systems, used in professional training environments. The company builds on more than 20 years experience developing and deploying training systems for the industrial clients in the energy industry, space industry, and other areas. Clients of PaleBlue include the European Space Agency, Baker Hughes and Saudi Aramco.