Landsat program
In 1973 NTNF started planning to use the station for downloading from NASA's Landsat program. Sufficient funding from the government was secured in mid 1976, after a successful lobby operation which emphasized the possibility of environmental observation in Norway's territorial waters. 7.5 million Norwegian krone (NOK) was granted for upgrades in 1977. Norway entered negotiations with the US, but soon ESA and NASA started discussions regarding two European telemetry stations for Landsat to serve all ESA members. ESA and Sweden pushed for Kiruna, Sweden, to be the location of ESA's northern telemetry station and Tromsø was discarded because of Norway's decision to not join ESA.