Isar Aerospace achieves first launch to orbit from continental Europe

German company Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum rocket to orbit from Andøya Spaceport in Norway—the first orbital launch from continental Europe and the first time a European company has reached orbit with its own launch vehicle. The two-stage Spectrum lifted off at 21:12 BST/22:12 CEST. This flight follows Spectrum’s initial test flight in 2025, which lasted 30 seconds and cleared the pad, proving liftoff capability. Spectrum stands 28 meters tall, is 2 meters in diameter, and with its ten engines is designed to deliver up to 1000 kg to low Earth orbit.

Unlike the 2025 test flight, this mission—named 'Onward and Upward'—carried six commercial and educational CubeSats and an experiment intended to prove new in-orbit technologies and provide educational experiences for students in Europe. The mission was supported by ESA’s Boost! program, under which Isar Aerospace received several rounds of co-funding for the Spectrum launch service. Isar also won the first Microlauncher Competition awarded by the German Space Agency at DLR, which selected the payloads on this flight.

Isar Aerospace was selected in 2025 as one of the launch service operators for ESA’s European Launcher Challenge, which requires providers to achieve an orbital launch by 2027. With this flight, Isar completed that first milestone ahead of any other selected provider. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher described it as a historic launch and an astounding achievement by an eight-year-old company backed by ESA, contributing to a more diverse autonomous European launch sector. ESA’s Director of Space Transportation, Géraldine Naja, congratulated the teams and highlighted that Isar is the first European company to reach orbit with its own launch vehicle.