German startup Isar Aerospace successfully launched its two-stage Spectrum rocket into low-Earth orbit Saturday from Andøya Spaceport in Norway, becoming the first private European company to achieve this milestone. The launch aims to address a bottleneck in the global space industry and provide sovereign access to space for Europe.
Founded in 2018 by Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann, and Markus Brandl – then students at the Technical University of Munich – Isar Aerospace developed the 92-foot-tall (28-meter) Spectrum rocket. The rocket lifted off at 4:12 pm EST (20:12 UTC) and reached orbit seven minutes later. “Today, Isar Aerospace opened space from continental Europe,” said Daniel Metzler, the company’s co-founder and CEO, in a press release. “Launch continues to be the largest bottleneck for the global space industry and from today on, there is a true alternative for commercial and institutional customers.”
Metzler stated the company achieved in a few years what had taken the European space industry decades. “We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before,” Metzler continued. “Europe now has sovereign access to space. We have entered into a new chapter for European spaceflight. I am incredibly proud of our team, that has made this success story from Europe possible. We will now focus on rapidly scaling launch vehicle production, deliver on our order pipeline, and meet surging global demand.”
The company, which began as a hobby tinkering with rocket parts in a campus workshop, has raised approximately $1 billion in private financing and employs nearly 500 people, making it the most well-capitalized private launch company in Europe. Metzler noted that, “Especially early on, back in 2018, when, frankly, there was no ‘New Space’ industry, especially on this side of the Atlantic, people said it will never work.” He added, “Generally, I think you very much overestimate what you can do in the short term, but I think you underestimate what you can do in the long term.”
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