A German rocket company has made history after launching a rocket to orbit from European soil for the first time.
Isar Aerospace’s ‘Onward and Upward’ mission launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya in northern Norway on Saturday, carrying six commercial and educational CubeSats and one non-deployable scientific experiment into orbit.
It marks a major milestone for European space capabilities, which accounted for just seven of the 300-plus orbital launches globally last year – all of which launched from French Guiana in South America.
“A historic launch from Andøya Spaceport in Norway today, the first European Launcher Challenger to reach orbit,” said Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA).
“Spectrum quite literally rose to the challenge and delivered its payloads in low Earth orbit. An astounding achievement by German company Isar Aerospace, founded only eight years ago, and backed by the European Space Agency.”
The launch had faced numerous delays, having originally been scheduled to lift off in January. An earlier launch attempt in March 2025 saw the two-stage rocket crash back to Earth after less than a minute.
ESA’s director described Saturday’s successful launch as another step towards developing an autonomous European launch service sector, after decades of reliance on overseas or foreign launch infrastructure.
Isar Aerospace is hoping to become a European rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which accounted for over 90 per cent of the total payload mass sent to orbit in last year.
It took SpaceX four attempts to successfully reach orbit, which took place in September 2008.
“We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before,” said Daniel Metzler, CEO and co-founder of Isar Aerospace.
“We have entered a new chapter for European spaceflight... We will now focus on rapidly scaling launch vehicle production, deliver on our order pipeline, and meet surging global demand.”