On Saturday evening, 5 September 2026, Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket reached Earth’s orbit from the company’s own launch site in Andøya, Norway. This means that, on just its second flight, the Munich-based team has achieved what no other private European space company has managed before: a launch into space and the successful deployment of satellites. We join Isar Aerospace in celebrating this milestone – and look back on a journey that began in Munich in 2018.
The launch: “Onward and Upward”
The mission was named “Onward and Upward” and carried five scientific satellites and one experiment into space. The payloads were selected as part of the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Microlauncher competition, funded by ESA’s Boost! programme. Spectrum successfully navigated all the critical phases of flight: the point of maximum aerodynamic load (Max Q), stage separation, the ignition of the second stage, and, finally, crossing the Kármán line at an altitude of 100 kilometers – the internationally recognized boundary of space.
Isar Aerospace CEO Daniel Metzler describes the success as a decisive turning point: what has so far taken European space programs decades to achieve, the team has accomplished in just a few years – thereby providing Europe with independent and flexible access to space for the first time.
The team is already looking ahead: Spectrum rockets three to seven are currently in production, a second launch site is being built in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the new 40,000-square-meter production facility near Munich is set to enable the production of up to 40 rockets per year in the future.
Isar Aerospace’s journey at UnternehmerTUM
Seven years of preparation have gone into this moment. Isar Aerospace was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich, and we have supported the start-up from the very beginning: the first engine parts were developed in our MakerSpace, and UVC Partners invested in the young company at an early stage.
As early as the first test flight in March 2025, the team demonstrated its capabilities, thereby laying the foundation for its current success. Daniel Metzler, co-founder and CEO of Isar Aerospace, summed up the team’s ambition even back then: “We have shown that we can not only develop and build rockets, but also launch them.” With the orbital flight on 5 September 2026, the team has now fully delivered on that ambition.
As a launch service provider for small and medium-sized satellites, Isar Aerospace now offers the first fully privately funded European solution to the growing global demand for launch capacity. To date, the start-up has raised EUR 400 million for this purpose. We are proud to have helped shape this journey from the very beginning and look forward to what comes next.
