German startup Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum rocket. The launch took place on the evening of September 5 from the Andøya spaceport in Norway. This was the rocket's second test flight. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing DW.
Reaching space
About four minutes after liftoff, Spectrum climbed to an altitude of about 100 kilometers — the conventional boundary of space. Later, communication with the rocket was lost as it went beyond the range of ground stations.
This flight marked the first time a rocket from a private European company reached space from European territory.
Previous failure
In March 2025, the first launch of Spectrum ended in failure — the rocket crashed about 30 seconds after liftoff.
Payload
This time, Spectrum carried five scientific satellites developed by several universities and a scientific experiment. It is not yet known whether all the spacecraft were successfully placed into orbit.
Launch delays
The second launch of Spectrum was postponed several times due to technical issues and safety concerns. Isar Aerospace expects to conduct several more launches before the end of the year.
Production plans
After moving to serial production, the company plans to launch about 40 rockets per year. The successful flight of Spectrum should help Europe reduce its dependence on American companies when placing satellites into orbit. Currently, a significant portion of European satellites is launched by SpaceX.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that India launched its first private orbital rocket, Vikram-1.