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Europe · from 1951

Pituffik Space Base

US space base in Greenland.

History

Pituffik Space Base (, bee-doo-FEEK; Greenlandic: [pitufːik]; IATA: THU, ICAO: BGTL), formerly Thule Air Base (, TOO-lee), is a United States Space Force base located on the northwest coast of Greenland in the Kingdom of Denmark under a defense agreement between Denmark and the United States.

Denmark was a founding member of NATO in 1949, and the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement allowed the United States to operate the base under a NATO framework, as long as both Denmark and the United States remain NATO members. Under the agreement, the United States has exclusive jurisdiction over its facilities at the base, but with the Danish flag being required to be flown over the base alongside the American flag and the Danes having the right to station a consulting liaison officer at the base. The 1951 agreement was modified in 2004 to require that the Greenlandic flag also be flown over the base and gave the Greenlandic government the right to appoint a liaison officer for the base. As of 2025, about 150 United States service members are permanently stationed there, down from some 6,000 during the Cold War.

It is the northernmost Department of Defense installation, 1,210 km (750 mi) north of the Arctic Circle and 1,524 km (947 mi) from the North Pole. Pituffik's Arctic environment includes icebergs in North Star Bay, two islands (Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island), a polar ice sheet, and Wolstenholme Fjord. The base is home to a substantial portion of the global network of missile warning sensors of Space Delta 4, and space surveillance and space control sensors of Space Delta 2, providing space awareness and advanced missile detection capabilities to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the United States Space Force, and joint partners.

Text from Wikipedia: Pituffik Space Base, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

  1. 1818
    In 1818, Sir John Ross's expedition made first contact with nomadic Inughuit in the area.
  2. 1942
    Balchen led a flight of two Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boats to Thule on 24 August 1942 and then sent a report advocating an air base to USAAF chief Henry "Hap" Arnold.
  3. 1949
    In 1949, Denmark joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and abandoned its attempt to remove the United States bases.
  4. 1951
    On 16 June 1951, the base was accidentally discovered by French cultural anthropologist and geographer Jean Malaurie and his Inuit friend Kutikitsoq, on their way back from the geomagnetic North Pole.
  5. 1955
    7th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group, 1 July 1955 – 20 December 1965 (Redesignated 7th Artillery Group 20 March 1958) [A, B, C, and D Batteries 90mm AAA cannon; 549th 75mm AAA BN (Sky Sweeper); 51st Ordnance Company]
  6. 1957
    In 1957, construction began on four Nike Missile sites around the base, and they and their radar systems were operational by the end of 1958.
  7. 1982
    Thule became an Air Force Space Command base in 1982.
  8. 2020
    In 2020, Thule Air Base was formally transferred to the United States Space Force.
  9. 2020
    In 2020, the tugboat was used to save a sinking ship and its crew of six 50 kilometers (31 mi) south of base, towing the distressed ship back to the port at Pituffik.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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