Isar Aerospace Spectrum Rocket Set for Second Test Launch

Fingers crossed! Isar Aerospace: New Attempt for "Spectrum" Rocket on Thursday

2026-04-09 Source: dpa 1 min Reading Time

Europe's space industry aims to become more independent. The second test flight of the German "Spectrum" rocket is due to take place on Thursday — it would be a major step.

Bavarian space firm Isar Aerospace will make a new attempt on Thursday to launch the German "Spectrum" rocket for its second test flight. The launch window opens at 22:00 CEST, Isar Aerospace said in Munich. The launch attempt will be streamed live on YouTube from 21:00.

Previous attempt thwarted by fisherman

An attempt prepared at the end of March was aborted at the last moment after a Norwegian fisherman entered the maritime safety zone around the Andøya spaceport with his vessel and failed to leave in time — forcing the countdown to be halted.

spectrum-roll-out-isar-aerospace-1536x864v1 (Source: Isar Aerospace)

Great hopes rest on the Spectrum. Once in series production it is intended to place civil and military satellites into low Earth orbit a few hundred kilometres above the ground. According to Isar Aerospace CEO Daniel Metzler, the company is already booked up until 2028 even though the rocket is not yet production-ready.

Dependence on SpaceX

Europe currently relies largely on US firm SpaceX, run by billionaire Elon Musk, to get satellites into space. Metzler noted that last year the US launched 198 rockets, the rest of the world 124 — and Europe only eight.

The first test flight of the Spectrum rocket took place just over a year ago, on 30 March 2025. The vehicle crashed into the sea after 30 seconds; at the time this was still considered a success because it yielded important insights for further development.

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