Germany Celebrates First Rocket in Space

Isar’s 28-meter-high Spectrum rocket started from the Norwegian launch center Andøya over the weekend. After four minutes, it reached an altitude of 100 kilometers and crossed the so-called Kármán Line, the border with outer space. It also released five scientific satellites. Isar is the first private company from Europe to reach outer space.

In a statement, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the launch “the beginning of a new era.” Isar chairman and founder Daniel Metzler added in the dpa news agency, “We achieved what has previously taken decades in the European space program within a few years. Europe and its partners can now proceed into space with sovereignty and flexibility.”

There were 198 rocket launches in the United States last year and 124 in the rest of the world, mainly China and Russia. Non-Russian Europe recorded only eight launches.

Isar says it is currently preparing five further launches and hopes to be constructing 40 rockets a year by 2030. It claims that satellite payload capacities are booked out until 2028. The company recently inked a deal worth more than EUR 200 million with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Metzler says some 70 percent of the inquiries Isar receives are military in nature. The German Ministry of Defense has said it would like to invest around EUR 35 billion in space infrastructure by the year 2030.

Source: DPA, FAZ, others