German Rocket Reaches Orbit From Western European Soil for the First Time

No rocket had ever reached orbit from Western European soil until German company Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andoya Space Center in northern Norway. The two-stage, 95-foot-tall (28-metre-tall) rocket lifted off and settled into an elliptical orbit around Earth a little over seven minutes later.

"This is right now making history, making history for Spectrum, making history for Isar, making history for Europe," said Nikolaos Perakis, Spectrum chief engineer at Isar, during the launch webcast. This was Spectrum's second flight; its debut in March 2025 ended when the rocket crashed back to Earth less than a minute after launch. Isar said an investigation completed within two months found an unintended opening of a vent valve and a loss of attitude control at the start of a roll manoeuvre had caused that failure.

The second flight, named "Onward and Upward," faced its own delays: a pressurisation valve issue pushed a planned January launch to March, bad weather and a passing boat scuttled several attempts, an April leak in a pressure vessel forced a scrub, and a June launch attempt was called off after the company detected off-nominal behaviour in the rocket's fluid systems.

Unlike its debut flight, Spectrum carried payloads this time: five cubesats and one non-deployable scientific experiment. The rocket's upper stage still needs to perform a circularisation burn to leave its initial elliptical orbit, estimated to range between 112 miles (180 kilometres) and 311 miles (500 kilometres) from Earth, before it can deploy those payloads and Isar can declare full mission success.

Isar says Spectrum can carry about 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit, and that its manufacturing facility near Munich can produce more than 30 of the rockets a year. Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in the roughly 25 per cent of Russia that lies within Europe, has hosted orbital launches for about six decades, making Spectrum the first rocket to reach orbit from Western Europe specifically.