Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil No rocket had ever reached orbit from European soil — until today The German company Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Space Center in northern Norway today (Sept. 5) at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT; 10:12 p.m. local time in Norway). A little over seven minutes later, it etched its name into the record books, settling into an elliptical orbit around our planet. "This is right now making history — making history for Spectrum, making history for Isar, making history for Europe,” Nikolaos Perakis, Spectrum chief engineer at Isar, said during today's launch webcast, which the company produced in collaboration with NASASpaceflight. "I'm incredibly proud of this massive achievement." This will be Spectrum's second bite at the apple: The two-stage, 95-foot-tall (28-meter-tall) rocket first flew in March 2025, lifting off from Andøya on a flight Isar called "Going Full Spectrum." But, as often happens on debut missions, Spectrum suffered an anomaly that day; it came crashing back to Earth less than a minute after launch. "A comprehensive investigation was completed within two months of the launch," Isar wrote in a September 2025 update. "The findings identified an unintended opening of the vent valve and a loss of attitude control at the start of the roll maneuver as the initiating events that led to the in-flight failure." The company took the lessons learned from that anomaly and geared up for flight number two, "Onward and Upward," which was originally supposed to launch in January. An issue with a pressurization valve nixed that plan, however, pushing the flight to March. Bad weather and an intruding boat scuttled multiple attempts that month, and an April 9 try was scrubbed due to a leak in a composite overwrapped pressure vessel. Isar next tried to fly on June 15 but stood down after "detecting off-nominal behavior in the vehicle's fluid systems," according to a company update that day on X. That issue is apparently now under control, as Spectrum is back on the pad and ready to fly. Spectrum did not carry viable payloads on its debut flight, but it will do so today. Five cubesats and one non-deployable scientific experiment are flying on "Onward and Upward." Isar is thinking big with Spectrum, which can haul about 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit. The company sees the rocket becoming a workhorse launcher of small to medium-size satellites down the road, and its infrastructure supports that vision. Isar says its manufacturing facility near Munich can churn out more than 30 of the rockets per year. Spectrum flying operationally, and flying often, would be a welcome development for the European spaceflight community. "These are exciting times for European space transportation, as we witness new actors developing and launching new vehicles," Toni Tolker-Nielsen, director of space transportation at the European Space Agency, said in a March 2026 statement. "Regardless of the outcome of this second flight, it will be another step to make European launch services market more diverse and resilient," he added. "Isar Aerospace will have advanced its capabilities and gained valuable experience." You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.