On September 5, 2026, German company Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway, marking the first commercial orbital rocket launched by a European company.
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German startup Isar Aerospace launched its uncrewed Spectrum rocket from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway at 20:12 UTC on Sept. 5, making it the first commercial rocket to reach orbit from continental Europe [themalteseherald.com#1][dlr.de#1][aljazeera.com#1][politico.eu#1]. The rocket carried five small satellites and an in-flight technology experiment, and Isar and DLR said the payloads reach
"We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before."
German company Isar Aerospace has successfully launched Europe's first entirely commercial orbital rocket. It attempted to achieve the feat last March, but that lasted all of 30 seconds before the vehicle crashed into the sea and exploded. This time the company managed to get the two-stage Spectrum into low Earth orbit from a Norwegian spaceport. […]
German startup Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum rocket into orbit from Norway on Saturday night, marking the first ever such launch by a commercial entity from European soil. European firms are racing to make up ground in the lucrative launch industry, currently dominated by America's SpaceX.