Isar Aerospace: first European success for a private rocket from Norway

Europe can “move quickly and meet expectations” in the space sector, the German company Isar Aerospace assured this Sunday, September 5, the day after its first successful launch of a rocket from Norway. During a press conference, the managers of this Munich start-up founded in 2018 congratulated themselves on being the first private European company to have put a satellite into orbit by its own means.

Their Spectrum rocket took off on Saturday shortly after 20:00 GMT from Andøya, north of the Arctic Circle, and successfully completed its second test flight, delayed several times due to technical or security problems. The first test in March 2025 ended in a crash after only 30 seconds of flight.

Daniel Metzler, boss of Isar Aerospace, considers it “important to understand that Europe can also move quickly and meet expectations” in space. Space is one of the main axes of the increase in military spending in Europe, initiated since the start of the war in Ukraine in the face of the Russian threat. But the Old Continent is currently far from being able to compete with the American Space X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, which largely dominates the launcher market.

“Do not depend on a monopoly”

“Strategic access to space, and not depending on a monopoly [...] is extremely important for our own security, for our own economy, for strategic autonomy,” insisted Daniel Metzler. Being able to transport material “stuck on Earth” to space is currently the biggest problem in the space economy, he continued. Start-ups, businesses, government... “Everyone is on the waiting list of a few entities. I think that will change now.”

Daniel Metzler also reported an order volume of tens of billions of euros and discussions with more than two dozen countries. “We are in very good discussions with the German government on a multitude of subjects,” he simply said about potential contracts with the Bundeswehr. After Andøya, Isar Aerospace is developing a second launch pad in Canada, which should be operational in early 2028.