Germany’s Isar Aerospace has reached orbit with its Spectrum rocket on the vehicle’s second flight, marking a significant step for Europe’s commercial launch industry. The company said the “Onward and Upward” mission lifted off from Andøya Space in Norway on 5 September 2026 and deployed payloads in orbit.
Isar described the flight as the first time a European commercial space company had successfully delivered satellites into orbit. It said it was working with customers to confirm the status of the deployed satellites. Reaching the planned orbit and confirming that individual spacecraft are operating are separate parts of the mission.
What the mission was designed to test
The second Spectrum flight was a qualification mission intended to demonstrate the rocket’s critical systems under operational conditions. Isar’s mission description listed five CubeSats and an experiment, with support from the European Space Agency’s Boost! programme. The launch followed component replacements, acceptance testing, stage tests and a wet dress rehearsal.
The result follows a much shorter debut flight on 30 March 2025. In its published investigation update, Isar said that flight ended after about 30 seconds, following an unintended vent-valve opening and a loss of attitude control during a roll manoeuvre. The company subsequently changed software and strengthened the vehicle’s control-system resilience.
What comes next
Isar is also building a commercial launch programme beyond these test flights. On 1 September, it announced an agreement to launch Astroscale Japan’s ADRAS-J2 debris-removal demonstration aboard Spectrum. That mission is targeted for 2027–2028 from Norway. The agreement illustrates the kinds of specialised satellite missions the company hopes to serve as it develops its launch service.
Sources: Isar Aerospace mission updates, first-flight investigation, and ADRAS-J2 launch agreement. This summary was prepared by The Republic Herald News Desk.