{"id":1188796,"date":"2026-09-06T01:14:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T01:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1188796\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T01:14:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T01:14:21","slug":"german-company-launches-rocket-as-europe-enters-satellite-race-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1188796\/","title":{"rendered":"German company launches rocket as Europe enters satellite race | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isar Aerospace says its 28-metre-long Spectrum rocket blasted off into space from And\u00f8ya spaceport in Arctic Norway.<\/p>\n

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Published On 6 Sep 20266 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Isar Aerospace has launched a rocket into orbit from Norway as Europe aims to boost its ability to independently send satellites into space.<\/p>\n

The 28-metre-long (92 ft) Spectrum rocket blasted off into space at 10:12pm (20:12 GMT) on Saturday from the And\u00f8ya spaceport in Arctic Norway, Isar Aerospace said.<\/p>\n

The uncrewed rocket carried five satellites that were deployed while in orbit, the German start-up said<\/a>, adding that \u201cspacecraft separation was completed successfully\u201d after satellite deployment.<\/p>\n

The Spectrum rocket reached an altitude of 100km (62 miles) above Earth\u2019s surface in less than four minutes, presenters said during a live broadcast of the rocket\u2019s takeoff.<\/p>\n

This is the first time a privately developed rocket has reached space from Europe, the company announced in a post on X.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Isar Aerospace launched its first test flight in March 2022, but the rocket plunged into the sea and exploded 30 seconds after takeoff. The second launch was scheduled for January but postponed several times.<\/p>\n

Europe is largely unable to launch satellites and has faced setbacks in sending rockets into orbit with its own technology after cutting ties with Russia\u2019s Soyuz rockets. Most European satellites have been launched by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, which operates out of the United States.<\/p>\n

Western Europe\u2019s first attempt<\/a> to launch a satellite using billionaire Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Orbit failed to reach orbit after an \u201canomaly\u201d was reported in January 2023.<\/p>\n

The US launched 198 rockets last year, while Europe launched just eight, according to Isar Aerospace. The German company seeks to build\u00a0capacity to manufacture up to 40 launch vehicles per year.<\/p>\n

Europe is betting on a new generation of small commercial launchers in early development to launch satellites more cheaply in the future.<\/p>\n

The space company announced<\/a> in August that it had signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), securing $230m to accelerate the development of launch vehicles and expand launch infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis milestone kicks off the European Launcher Challenge, encouraging competition among European launch providers,\u201d ESA director of space transportation G\u00e9raldine Naja said in a statement published by the German start-up at the time.<\/p>\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Isar Aerospace\u2019s launch site with Norway\u2019s prime minister in March and reiterated Europe\u2019s concerns about its dependence on the US, including in space launch capabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isar Aerospace says its 28-metre-long Spectrum rocket blasted off into space from And\u00f8ya spaceport in Arctic Norway. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1188797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1824,12,1115],"class_list":["post-1188796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-germany","tag-news","tag-norway"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117221450751558458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1188796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1188797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1188796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1188796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1188796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}