The space startup Isar Aerospace is planning its second rocket launch starting next week. The qualification flight is scheduled for January 21, provided weather conditions are favorable and the necessary approvals are granted, the company announced on Friday. The launch window opens at 9 p.m. This flight marks the next step towards a sovereign European access to space, said Isar Aerospace CEO Daniel Metzler. It will be the first flight of the rocket carrying payloads onboard, including five small satellites and one experiment.

Isar Aerospace uses the Andoya Spaceport in Norway for its Spectrum launch vehicles. According to the company, the launch vehicle can carry a payload of up to one ton and is intended to transport small and medium-sized satellites into orbit in the future. "Spectrum" is 28 meters long and belongs to the so-called microlauncher class. For comparison: the "Falcon 9" from SpaceX, the space company led by Trump advisor and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is 70 meters long and can transport up to 22.8 tons. The larger version of the European aerospace group Airbus' "Ariane 6" measures 62 meters and has a payload capacity of up to 21.6 tons. The latter launches from Kourou in French Guiana, South America. Andoya is located on an island north of the Arctic Circle. Until now, suborbital rockets have been launched from there, mainly for research missions.

Isar Aerospace is one of several German space startups aiming to compete with SpaceX. The company counts Volkswagen's main shareholder Porsche SE among its investors. The first flight of a Spectrum rocket on March 30, 2025, lasted only a few seconds.

(Reporting by Christina Amann. Edited by Olaf Brenner. For inquiries, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economy) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)