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Andøya Achieves First Orbital Launch from Europe
Written by: Tom Roeder
Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum made the first orbital launch from European soil.
Credit: ESA Europe celebrated a spaceflight milestone Sept. 5 with the first successful orbital launch conducted from the continent. Norway’s Andøya Space Center fired a Spectrum launch vehicle from Germany’s Isar Aerospace. The Spectrum released five SmallSats.
Walther Pelzer, head of the German Space Agency, called the launch a technological feat and a step toward sovereign space capabilities. Germany and other European nations have been reliant on the United States for launch. Isar got $13 million from the German government as part of an effort to encourage the nation’s launch industry.
”With our micro-launcher competition, we have paved the way for companies such as Isar Aerospace to fundamentally transform European access to space,” Pelzer stated. “The Spectrum rocket was not developed under a government contract; it was developed to serve a global market.”
ESA Helped Young Firm
The European Space Agency (ESA) invested more than $200 million into the Isar Spectrum as part of its Boost Program, to encourage launch vehicle development on the continent. The program required firms to launch orbit by 2027.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said the accomplishment by Isar was “astounding.”
“This is yet another step towards a more diverse autonomous European launch service sector, and I am excited for what is still to come,” he stated.
Europe has deep experience with spaceflight, but those missions aboard Arianespace launch vehicles were fired from French Guiana in South America.
Europe has faced a bottleneck in access to space, with delayed development of its primary launcher, the Ariane 6. There’s stiff competition in the U.S. launch market, with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 fully booked and ULA’s Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn facing flight delays.
New launch vehicles and new spaceports in Norway and the United Kingdom are expected to help meet growing demand.
Light Launchers Race to Space
The Isar Spectrum represents a new generation of light launch vehicles under development in Europe. The 90-foot launch vehicle can carry 2,200 pounds to orbit. Other European light launch vehicles expected to make initial orbital attempts in the next year include the United Kingdom’s Skyrora XL and Germany’s RFA One and HyImpulse SL-1.
It hasn’t been easy for European launch start-ups. The Spectrum’s first flight test ended with the launch vehicle detonating after an uncontrolled spin. A U.K. competitor, Orbex, went out of business in February after its funding ran dry.
Isar’s future got brighter even before the successful launch. On Sept. 1, it signed a contract with Japan’s Astroscale to launch Astroscale’s active debris removal spacecraft on a future Spectrum flight.
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