Agency Report –
After a weather-related delay, the German Spectrum rocket has taken off in Norway. The flight lasted about half a minute and is a success from the company’s point of view. There are further plans.
German space start-up Isar Aerospace launched a historic test flight on Sunday, with its Spectrum launch vehicle taking off from Norway’s Andøya spaceport and spending some 30 seconds in the air before crashing into the sea.
The flight marked the first commercial orbital launch from mainland Europe.
Isar Aerospace chief executive and co-founder Daniel Metzler hailed the mission as a “great success,” saying the start-up was already working on two further rockets.
Isar Aerospace is seeking to develop a viable launch vehicle to carry satellites to orbit.
After the launch had to be pushed back several times due to adverse weather conditions, the Spectrum lifted off at 12:30 pm (1030 GMT), with Metzler saying its first test flight “met all our expectations.”
“We had a clean lift-off, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our Flight Termination System,” he said.
The rocket was not expected to reach orbit, with a company spokeswoman previously warning that no company has ever managed to achieve space flight in a first test.
Instead, the aim of the first test flight was to gather as much data and as much experience as possible, according to the company.
Marie-Christine von Hahn, managing director of the German Aerospace Industries Association, described the mission as a groundbreaking step for German space travel.
“This test of a highly complex rocket manufactured in Germany has yielded an enormous amount of data that will enable us to make further progress,” she said.
Von Hahn called for strong funding for the European space industry to ensure its competitiveness and independence, stressing the need for alternatives to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network.
Isar Aerospace, founded in 2018, is a European rival to Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Europe is currently lagging the United States, China and India in space travel, amid delays in the development of the European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 launcher.
The Spectrum launch vehicle is 28 metres long, with a diameter of 2 metres.
Depending on the desired orbit, it can carry a payload of between 700 and 1,000 kilograms to space.
Isar Aerospace envisions building up to 40 launch vehicles per year.
The firm has so far raised more than €400 million ($433 million) in capital.
The NATO Innovation Fund, a venture capital fund supported by 24 NATO member states, was among the participants in the latest financing round.
By Ute Wessels and Christof Rührmair
