Isar Aerospace: Engineering Europe’s Independent Path to Orbit

Introduction

In the rapidly expanding global space economy, a German aerospace company, Isar Aerospace, has emerged as a significant contender. Founded in March 2018 and headquartered in the technology hub of Ottobrunn, near Munich, the company is developing and operating launch vehicles specifically for the growing market of small and medium-sized satellites. Its core mission is to provide flexible, cost-effective, and reliable access to space, addressing a worldwide demand for launch services fueled by innovations in communications, Earth observation, and data-driven technologies.

Isar Aerospace’s work is positioned at the intersection of commercial opportunity and geopolitical strategy. The company is not only tapping into the economic potential of the “NewSpace” sector but is also a key component of Europe’s broader push for strategic autonomy. For years, Europe has depended on non-European providers for a substantial portion of its launch needs. By developing a privately funded, vertically integrated launch solution on European soil, Isar Aerospace represents a tangible step toward securing the continent’s independent access to space. As one of Europe’s most well-funded private space companies, having secured over €550 million in investment, it is poised to play a defining role in the future of European spaceflight.

From University Roots to a European Unicorn

The story of Isar Aerospace began not in a corporate boardroom, but within the academic and entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The company was founded in March 2018 by three aerospace engineering graduates: Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann, and Markus Brandl. Their shared background and hands-on experience were cultivated in TUM’s student rocketry group, the Scientific Workgroup for Rocketry and Spaceflight (WARR).

Established in 1962, WARR provided the founders with a platform to move beyond theory and engage in the practical challenges of rocket science. Within this group, they worked on developing and testing rocket engines, an experience that laid the technical foundation for their future commercial venture. The supportive environment at TUM was instrumental in their transition from a student project to a viable startup. They utilized the university’s high-tech workshop, MakerSpace, to build their first prototypes and received business development support through the XPRENEURS incubator program. This structured pipeline of academic research, hands-on engineering, and entrepreneurial guidance allowed the team to develop tangible hardware and attract interest even before the company was formally established.

This foundation enabled remarkable growth. From its three founders, Isar Aerospace has expanded into a diverse team of over 400 employees representing more than 50 nations. The company’s progress and potential attracted significant investment, leading it to achieve “unicorn” status—a valuation of over one billion dollars. This milestone places Isar Aerospace among a select group of highly valued private technology companies and underscores the success of the Munich-based innovation hub in fostering capital-intensive, deep-tech enterprises.

The Spectrum Launch Vehicle

The centerpiece of Isar Aerospace’s offering is the Spectrum, a launch vehicle designed from the ground up to serve the specific needs of the small and medium satellite market. It represents a focused effort to provide a versatile and efficient transportation service to orbit.

Design and Capabilities

Spectrum is a two-stage, liquid-fueled orbital rocket. It stands 28 meters tall with a diameter of 2 meters. Its performance is tailored to the most active segment of the satellite market, with the capacity to lift up to 1,000 kg into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or 700 kg into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). These capabilities make it suitable for launching either a single, larger satellite or deploying multiple smaller satellites as part of a constellation. The current design of the Spectrum rocket is expendable, meaning it is not intended for reuse.

Propulsion System

The heart of the Spectrum rocket is its Aquila engine, a propulsion system developed entirely in-house. The first stage is powered by a cluster of nine Aquila engines, while the second stage uses a single Aquila engine optimized to operate in the vacuum of space. This nine-plus-one configuration is a proven design in modern launch vehicles, offering redundancy and reliability.

The engines run on a combination of liquid oxygen (LOX) and propane. This propellant choice offers a high density-specific impulse, which contributes to the rocket’s overall performance and efficiency. It is also a cleaner-burning and non-toxic fuel source, minimizing the environmental impact of launch operations.

A key feature of the Spectrum’s design is the second stage’s multi-ignition capability. This allows the engine to be shut down and restarted multiple times in orbit. This functionality enables complex mission profiles, such as deploying multiple satellites into different orbits during a single launch. It effectively allows the upper stage to act as a space tug, providing a high degree of flexibility for customers, especially those with rideshare payloads. Before its first flight, the Aquila engine underwent a rigorous development and qualification campaign, primarily at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden. This involved hundreds of test sequences and over 124 hotfire tests to validate the design, performance, and reliability of the engine and its components. The company successfully completed full-duration static fire tests for both the first and second stages, clearing all major technical hurdles before the vehicle’s inaugural launch.

A Strategy of Vertical Integration and Advanced Manufacturing

Isar Aerospace’s business model is built on a foundation of vertical integration. The company has made a strategic decision to design, develop, and manufacture the vast majority of its launch vehicle in-house, with a stated goal of controlling approximately 80% of the value chain. This approach is a departure from the traditional aerospace model, which often relies on a complex and geographically dispersed network of suppliers. By concentrating production, Isar Aerospace gains greater control over its processes, timelines, and costs.

This philosophy is enabled by the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies:

• Additive Manufacturing: The company uses 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, to produce some of the most complex components of its Aquila engines, including the combustion chamber and thrust nozzle. This technology allows for the creation of intricate geometries that would be difficult or impossible to make with traditional methods. It also enables part consolidation, where multiple smaller components can be printed as a single piece, reducing complexity, weight, and potential points of failure. This technique shortens lead times, allowing for rapid design iterations and testing.
• Automation: Automation is a key element of the company’s engineering and manufacturing workflows. By automating processes, Isar Aerospace can increase its production rate, maintain consistent quality, and lower labor costs. This efficiency is central to its plan to achieve a high launch cadence, with the capacity to build up to 40 Spectrum rockets per year from its facility near Munich.
• Carbon Composites: The primary structure of the Spectrum rocket is fabricated from lightweight carbon composite materials. The use of these advanced materials reduces the overall mass of the vehicle, which in turn increases the payload capacity it can deliver to orbit. The manufacturing of these composite structures is also an automated process, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

The company has also developed its own pyro-free separation systems. These mechanisms are used to separate the rocket stages and deploy the payload fairing without the use of pyrotechnics, resulting in a low-shock environment that is safer for sensitive satellite electronics. This strategy of in-house production and technological control provides the flexibility, speed, and autonomy that the company sees as necessary to compete effectively in the fast-paced NewSpace industry.

Access to Orbit: Launch Services and Sites

To serve a diverse global market, Isar Aerospace offers a range of flexible launch services and has secured access to two strategically located launch sites, giving it the ability to reach nearly any orbit. The company’s launch services are structured to meet different customer requirements and budgets:

• Dedicated: This premium service allows a single customer to book an entire Spectrum rocket, giving them full control over the launch schedule and the final orbital destination.
• Lead: A primary customer can define the orbit and launch window, with Isar Aerospace filling the remaining capacity with smaller, secondary payloads.
• Rideshare: This option allows multiple customers to share the cost of a launch by booking a slot on a flight to a predetermined, common orbit.

This commercial flexibility is matched by strategic infrastructure. The company’s two launch sites are chosen to provide comprehensive orbital coverage.

Andøya Spaceport, Norway

Isar Aerospace will conduct its initial launches from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway, which is continental Europe’s first operational site for orbital launches. Its location on the coast, far north of the Arctic Circle, makes it ideal for missions targeting polar and sun-synchronous orbits (SSO). These orbits are commonly used for Earth observation, maritime surveillance, and climate monitoring satellites, as they allow a satellite to pass over the entire surface of the Earth. The site can accommodate launches into inclinations ranging from 87.4 to 108 degrees. To ensure long-term, reliable access, Isar Aerospace has signed a 20-year exclusive lease for its launch pad at Andøya, providing significant planning security for itself and its customers.

Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

In a significant partnership, Isar Aerospace was selected by France’s national space agency, CNES, to become the first private company to operate from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. The company will utilize the historic Diamant launch complex, which has been inactive since 1975. The primary advantage of CSG is its proximity to the equator, at a latitude of just 5°2′. This location provides a natural performance boost from the Earth’s rotational speed, making it highly efficient for launches into equatorial and medium-inclination orbits. These orbits are critical for deploying communications satellites and other payloads destined for geostationary orbit. Access to CSG allows Isar Aerospace to serve a completely different segment of the satellite market from a single, well-established spaceport.

The Inaugural Flight: “Going Full Spectrum”

On March 30, 2025, Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of its Spectrum rocket, a mission named “Going Full Spectrum.” The launch from Andøya Spaceport in Norway was a historic moment, representing the first vertical orbital launch attempt by a private company from continental Europe.

The rocket lifted off successfully at 12:30 PM CEST. However, approximately 30 seconds into the flight, the vehicle experienced an anomaly, lost control, and began to tumble. Following established safety protocols, the flight termination system was activated. The rocket fell back into the sea in a designated safe zone, where it exploded on impact. The launch pad and ground infrastructure remained intact.

While the flight ended prematurely, Isar Aerospace framed the mission as a success based on its predefined test objectives. The company stated that the primary goal was not to reach orbit but to gather as much data as possible from the first integrated test of all the rocket’s systems. From this perspective, the flight achieved several key milestones: a clean liftoff, the collection of 30 seconds of valuable flight data from thousands of components, and the successful validation of the flight termination system. This approach of defining success by data acquisition rather than orbital insertion demonstrates a mature understanding of the iterative nature of rocket development.

This outcome is not unusual in the aerospace industry. Many of today’s most reliable launch vehicles, including SpaceX‘s Falcon 1 and Europe’s own Ariane 5, experienced failures on their maiden flights. These early attempts are often seen as necessary learning experiences that provide the crucial data needed to refine the vehicle’s design for subsequent, successful missions. The company’s ability to manage the narrative around the flight and maintain investor confidence was a demonstration of strategic maturity.

Building a Customer Base and Securing Europe’s Place in Space

Even before its first test flight, Isar Aerospace had built a strong and diverse manifest of both commercial and institutional customers, signaling broad market confidence in its technology and business model. This customer base is central to its dual strategy of achieving commercial viability while also fulfilling a strategic role for Europe.

Commercial Partnerships

The company has secured contracts with a wide range of global players. Its first major customer was Airbus Defence and Space, one of the world’s leading aerospace companies. It has also signed agreements with several in-orbit logistics and “space tug” providers, including Italy’s D-Orbit and France’s Exotrail, who will use Spectrum to deliver their orbital transfer vehicles.

Demonstrating its international appeal, Isar Aerospace secured a multi-launch agreement with Spaceflight, Inc., a prominent American launch services provider, marking its entry into the US market. The company also signed a contract with Japan’s ElevationSpace, its first customer in the Asian market. Its manifest is further filled out by satellite operators such as OroraTech, EnduroSat, and Astrocast, who will use Spectrum to deploy their constellations.

Institutional Contracts

Anchor contracts from government agencies provide a stable foundation of demand and are a strong vote of confidence. Isar Aerospace has secured two such cornerstone agreements.

The first came from the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Isar Aerospace won the DLR’s microlauncher competition, which came with an €11 million award to support the launch of institutional payloads. As part of this, the German government will fly a total of up to 300 kg of payloads on Spectrum’s first two flights. For the second flight, 19 different spacecraft from 10 European research institutions and small companies have been selected.

The second major institutional contract is with the Norwegian Space Agency (NOSA). Isar Aerospace will launch two satellites for Norway’s Arctic Ocean Surveillance (AOS) program by 2028. These satellites, the AOS-Demo and the AOS-Precursor, are designed for maritime surveillance and will be launched from Andøya into a sun-synchronous orbit.

The Push for European Autonomy

These commercial and institutional successes are taking place against a backdrop of growing urgency for European strategic autonomy in space. For years, Europe has faced what has been described as a “launcher crisis,” with a gap in its sovereign launch capabilities and an increasing reliance on foreign providers, particularly American companies. Having independent, reliable, and cost-effective access to space from European territory is now considered a high priority for both economic and security reasons. Isar Aerospace, as a privately funded and vertically integrated company, is positioned as a key provider of this much-needed sovereign launch capability.

Financial Backing and Future Outlook

Isar Aerospace’s ambitious development program has been supported by one of the most successful fundraising campaigns of any European space startup. The company is the continent’s most well-funded independent launch provider, having raised a total of over €550 million. This strong financial backing from a diverse group of international investors reflects confidence in its technology, strategy, and leadership.

The company’s funding journey shows a steady progression of investor confidence. After an initial angel investment in 2018, it secured a $17 million Series A round in 2020 led by Earlybird and Airbus Ventures. This was followed by a larger €75 million Series B round later that year, led by Lakestar. Corporate and strategic investors joined in subsequent rounds, including Porsche SE. A $165 million Series C round in 2023, one of the largest European DeepTech fundraises of the year, brought in new backers like 7-Industries Holding and Lombard Odier. The company’s strategic importance was further highlighted by investment from the NATO Innovation Fund as part of a Series C extension in 2024. Most recently, in June 2025, Isar Aerospace secured €150 million through a convertible bond from the American investment firm Eldridge Industries.

Looking ahead, Isar Aerospace’s immediate priority is to analyze the data from its first test flight and proceed toward a second launch attempt. The company has already begun manufacturing its second and third Spectrum vehicles, signaling its intent to move quickly toward operational service. Beyond that, the company has indicated longer-term ambitions. It has plans to conduct reusability testing at Spaceport Esrange in Sweden, exploring technologies that could dramatically lower launch costs in the future. There are also reports of plans for a larger launch vehicle, sometimes referred to as Spectrum 2, which would increase the payload capacity to four tonnes and could be designed with reusable architecture from the outset. This suggests a two-phase strategy: first, to master and commercialize the current Spectrum rocket, and second, to use that foundation to develop next-generation technologies for long-term competitiveness.

Summary

Isar Aerospace has rapidly progressed from a student project at the Technical University of Munich to a leading player in Europe’s NewSpace industry. In just a few years, it has developed a sophisticated launch vehicle, established a highly automated manufacturing facility, and secured access to two of the continent’s most strategic spaceports. Its core business is to provide flexible and cost-effective launch services for the booming global market of small and medium-sized satellites.

The company’s strategy is defined by its commitment to vertical integration and advanced manufacturing, using technologies like 3D printing and automation to build its Spectrum rocket and Aquila engines in-house. This approach gives it the speed and control needed to compete in a dynamic market. Following its inaugural test flight, which provided valuable data despite ending prematurely, Isar Aerospace is well-capitalized and holds a strong manifest of both commercial and institutional customers. With its second and third rockets already in production, the company is focused on reaching orbit and beginning commercial operations, all while exploring future technologies like reusability. In doing so, Isar Aerospace is not only building a commercial enterprise but is also engineering a vital component of Europe’s independent future in space.