Spectrum has successfully entered orbit, and a frontrunner has emerged in the European small rocket competition.

In the early hours of September 6 Beijing time, the Spectrum launch vehicle of German commercial space company Isar Aerospace lifted off from the Andøya Space Center in Norway, completed circularization ignition and payload separation.

This marks the second flight of Spectrum.

Its maiden flight in March 2025 lasted for about 30 seconds before the rocket lost attitude control and the mission was terminated. The second Spectrum completed first-stage flight, interstage separation, second-stage ignition, fairing separation and orbital deployment, marking the first complete orbital flight record of the vehicle.

Isar Aerospace described this mission as the first satellite-to-orbit delivery completed by a European commercial space company. Beyond the milestone itself, the more immediate value of this flight is that it has laid the engineering foundation for Spectrum to enter the launch service market.

The second flight: eight months of waiting

Spectrum is 28 meters in total length and 2 meters in diameter, powered by liquid oxygen and propane, with a total of 10 engines across its two stages, and a maximum low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of around 1 ton. It is positioned for small and medium-sized satellites, constellation replenishment, and dedicated orbit launch missions.

After the maiden flight was terminated, Isar Aerospace completed the accident investigation within two months. The company's public results showed that the accidental opening of the vent valve and the loss of attitude control at the start of the roll maneuver were the initial causes of the flight failure. The investigation results were reviewed by the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority.

After that, the company adjusted the mission software, added environmental margins, and recompleted the two-stage integrated static ignition test.

The second flight was originally scheduled for January 2026, but the actual preparation process lasted until September. A series of issues including pressurization valve failure, vessels entering the maritime safety zone, elevated engine fuel temperature, leakage of composite-wound pressure vessels, and fluid system anomalies had successively affected the launch schedule.

Some of these issues came from the rocket, while others came from the launch site and maritime safety management. For a rocket to meet flight conditions, ground equipment, sea and airspace, weather, and mission organization must all meet the requirements simultaneously. The eight-month wait for the second launch also allowed Isar Aerospace to go through a relatively complete launch operation run-in.

On September 5, Spectrum passed the maximum dynamic pressure zone, completed first-stage engine shutdown and interstage separation, and the second-stage engine ignited normally. After crossing the Kármán line, the rocket jettisoned the fairing, reached orbital velocity and performed circularization ignition, before completing spacecraft separation.

From the engines, rocket body structure to guidance control and separation mechanisms, the main systems of Spectrum operated consecutively in an orbital-level mission for the first time.

According to StarMoment, this mission carried 5 CubeSats and 1 non-separable experimental payload. The rocket has completed the separation procedure, and Isar Aerospace is still confirming the status of the satellites with its customers. Whether the satellites can establish communication, achieve attitude stabilization and activate their payloads remains to be verified by each mission team.

Europe starts placing orders with new players

It is reported that just nine days before the Spectrum launch, Isar Aerospace had just secured a contract worth 197.8 million euros.

On August 27, the European Space Agency signed a contract with Isar Aerospace under the European Launcher Challenge initiative. The funding is mainly provided by Germany, with participation from Austria and Norway, and will be released gradually based on the technical and commercial milestones achieved by the company.

At present, Europe's launch capacity is mainly supported by the Ariane and Vega series. With the increasing number of remote sensing, communication, on-orbit servicing and security satellites, Europe hopes to build more local launch options, especially dedicated launch capacity for small and medium-sized satellites.

StarMoment learned that other companies selected for the European Launcher Challenge include Germany's RFA, Spain's PLD Space and France's MaiaSpace. The European Space Agency no longer uniformly defines the technical solution for each type of launch vehicle. The enterprises are responsible for their own R&D, production and operation, and institutional customers support their growth by purchasing services and providing phased funding.

Selected enterprises must first complete an orbital launch before 2028, and Spectrum's second flight has already met this basic requirement.

For small and medium-sized satellite customers, dedicated launches and large rocket rideshares address two distinct types of demands. Rideshares usually have a lower unit price, but the launch time and target orbit are mostly determined by the primary payload. Dedicated launch vehicles have smaller capacity, and can arrange the launch time and orbit around the customer's mission, making them suitable for constellation replenishment, technical verification, and some missions with high response speed requirements.

Isar Aerospace's publicly disclosed mission schedule has already extended to 2028. Its customers include institutions and enterprises such as the European Space Agency, the Norwegian Space Agency, and Astroscale. Norway's Arctic Maritime Surveillance program will launch two satellites via Spectrum, while Astroscale plans to use Spectrum to launch the ADRAS-J2 space debris removal spacecraft.

These missions are far more complex than the university CubeSats carried in this launch, with clearer requirements for orbit injection accuracy, mission adaptability and launch timing. The second flight has provided the first set of orbital insertion data, and subsequent missions will test whether Spectrum can deliver as required by commercial contracts.

Five more rockets are already on the production line

Isar Aerospace has started production of the 3rd to 7th Spectrum vehicles. The company has built a 40,000-square-meter manufacturing facility near Munich, with a maximum long-term designed production capacity of 40 vehicles per year.

In addition to the Andøya Space Center, the company is also constructing a launch facility in Nova Scotia, Canada, to cover more medium and high inclination orbits. When fully completed, the Andøya Space Center is planned to support a maximum of 30 orbital missions per year.

The factory area and designed production capacity depict the long-term scale. After the rocket enters mass production, the performance consistency of each batch of engines, parts supply, final assembly testing and quality control will all affect actual delivery. After entering the launch site, factors such as weather windows, ground turnaround, and sea and airspace coordination time also need to be calculated.

The next five rockets will successively verify whether the Spectrum production line can stably replicate consistent results.

This article is from the WeChat official account "StarMoment", author: Julian, authorized for release by 36Kr.