A German startup has launched the first commercial rocket to reach orbit from continental Europe, a milestone for Europe’s efforts to secure independent access to space. Isar Aerospace said on Sunday that it would rapidly expand satellite deployments after the first orbital launch of its uncrewed Spectrum rocket from Arctic Norway, marking a breakthrough for a region where several countries are seeking a foothold in the fast-growing market for satellite launches. Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, hailed Saturday’s launch in a statement, calling it “the beginning of a new era”.
Merz visited Isar’s launch site in March, underscoring Europe’s efforts to establish greater autonomy as the global order once championed by the US is shifting under the administration of country’s president, Donald Trump. The EU defence and space commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, wrote on the social media platform X: “Europe’s independent access to space just got a major boost.” Blasting off from Andøya Spaceport, Spectrum carried five small satellites along with an in-flight technology experiment. It was Isar’s second launch, coming 18 months after the company’s first rocket plunged into the sea and exploded in a fiery spectacle shortly after takeoff from the same site.
Isar has said it already has five more rockets in production and is now focused on scaling up operations to meet rising demand, with a long-term goal of conducting about 40 launches a year. The German company is developing a second launch site in Nova Scotia in eastern Canada. Global players in the satellite launch market include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which launches from the US, and the French firm ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and Safran that uses a spaceport in French Guiana, South America.
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