Isar Aerospace becomes first European commercial company to reach orbit
Isar Aerospace reaches orbit and deploys payloads on second flight
On September 5, 2026, Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket lifted off from Andøya, Norway, on its second flight, successfully deploying payloads into orbit. This marks the first time a European commercial company has achieved orbital delivery, breaking a decades-long bottleneck in European space access. The mission, named 'Onward and Upward', carried payloads selected through the German Space Agency's Microlauncher Competition. CEO Daniel Metzler hailed the achievement as opening a new chapter for European spaceflight, with plans to scale production to 40 launch vehicles annually.
We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before. Europe now has sovereign access to space.