German Startup Isar Aerospace Launches Europe's First Commercial Rocket Into Orbit

Munich-based Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket reached orbit seven minutes after lifting off from Norway's Andøya Spaceport — the first fully commercial launch from continental Europe.

Munich-based Isar Aerospace made spaceflight history on Saturday, sending its Spectrum rocket into orbit from a spaceport inside the Arctic Circle and becoming the first fully commercial launch company to reach space from continental Europe.

The two-stage, 28-meter Spectrum lifted off at 20:12 UTC from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway, its nine Aquila engines burning propane and liquid oxygen. Seven minutes later it was in orbit, carrying five CubeSats and a technology experiment — a milestone that arrived after the rocket's first flight spun out of control and crashed seconds after liftoff in March 2025. The Guardian and Space.com both frame the launch as Europe's entry into a satellite-launch race.

"We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before," said CEO Daniel Metzler, who founded the company with two classmates at the Technical University of Munich in 2018. "Europe now has sovereign access to space."

The launch hands Europe a homegrown commercial route to orbit after decades of leaning on French Guiana's spaceport in South America and foreign rockets. Rivals Rocket Factory Augsburg and PLD Space are still targeting first launches, while Isar — backed by roughly $1 billion and a recent $230 million European Space Agency contract — says it has five more Spectrum rockets in production.