Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket into low-Earth orbit on Saturday, making it the first fully commercial launch vehicle in Europe to reach orbit. The company was founded just eight years ago by three students tinkering with rocket parts in a university workshop.
The 92-foot-tall, two-stage rocket lifted off at 4:12 pm EST from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle. Seven minutes after liftoff, according to Ars Technica, Spectrum was in orbit.
Daniel Metzler, co-founder and CEO, founded the company in 2018 alongside classmates Josef Fleischmann and Markus Brandl at the Technical University of Munich. The company is named after the Isar River that runs through the Bavarian capital.
"Today, Isar Aerospace opened space from continental Europe," Metzler said 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 added context to the speed of the achievement. "We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before," he said. "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 launch places Isar at the front of a group of European launch startups competing in what has been described as a stagnant European launch market. The company's success comes as European governments and private customers have sought more homegrown alternatives for getting satellites to orbit.
Isar launched from Andøya Spaceport as the final traces of daylight faded from the late summer Arctic sky at 10:12 pm local time. The spaceport, located in northern Norway, is one of the few dedicated orbital launch facilities in Europe.
Saturday's flight positions Isar as the clear leader among European commercial launch competitors. The company has an existing order pipeline and says it will move quickly toward higher production rates to meet what it calls surging global demand.
