Germany’s Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket into orbit from Norway’s Andoya Space Center on Saturday, marking the first successful orbital launch of a rocket from mainland Europe.
Second Attempt Succeeds
The 28-meter Spectrum rocket lifted off at 10:12pm local time and reached orbit roughly seven minutes later, according to Space.com. The mission, called “Onward and Upward,” carried five small satellites and a non-separable experiment from Germany’s DLR space agency as part of the European Space Agency’s Boost program.
The launch followed a difficult run of scrubbed and delayed attempts, including a January scrub over a pressurization valve issue, a March postponement due to weather and an unauthorized boat entering the danger zone, and an April scrub caused by a leak in a pressure vessel, according to European Spaceflight.
First Flight Ended in Failure
Spectrum’s debut flight in March last year ended less than a minute after launch when the rocket suffered an anomaly and crashed back to Earth, according to Space.com. Isar completed a review of that failure within two months and has spent the time since refining the vehicle ahead of Saturday’s successful qualification flight.
“This is right now making history, making history for Spectrum, making history for Isar, making history for Europe,” the company said during its live broadcast of the launch, according to Space.com.
A Milestone for European Space Ambitions
No rocket had previously reached orbit from Western European soil, and the launch is seen as a significant step in Europe’s push to build independent satellite launch capability rather than relying on providers like SpaceX, according to Al Jazeera.
Isar Aerospace, based in Ottobrunn, Germany, says Spectrum is designed to carry small and medium payloads into low Earth orbit and that it already has launch orders booked through 2028, though the rocket is not yet in full scale production.
The launch comes amid a broader European push to reduce reliance on foreign launch providers following years of relying heavily on facilities in French Guiana or contracting with American companies for satellite deployment. Isar’s success adds momentum to a small but growing field of European commercial launch startups aiming to compete in the small satellite market.
