YazataMar 27, 2025 07:49 PM (This post was last modified: Mar 27, 2025 08:15 PM by Yazata.)
Isar Aerospace is another small German "new space" startup like RFA. Like RFA they are based in Bavaria (Munich this time) and like RFA they have a small satellite launcher in the same size range as SpaceX's old Falcon 1 and Rocketlab's current very successful Electron.
They call it Spectrum and they hope to launch it for the first time on Friday March 28. The launch site is kind of exotic, the Andoya Space Center on Norway's remote northern arctic coast. The launch site has been there for years and has specialized in launching small suborbital sounding rockets to study various arctic phenomena like the auroras. Spectrum will be its first orbital launch and (as far as I know) the first orbital flight ever launched from Europe (Russia excluded).
It's 68 years since Sputnik, it's time the rest of Europe wakes up.
YazataMar 30, 2025 11:23 PM (This post was last modified: Mar 30, 2025 11:30 PM by Yazata.)
Welp... it lit its engines, lifted off, cleared the tower, and attempted its pitch-downrange maneuver.
At that point it appears to have lost control. It's engines were visible desperately vectoring thrust in hopes of controlling it. When that failed the engines shut down and the fuel-laden rocket fell back into the water narrowly missing the pad and exploding.
Mar 27, 2025 07:49 PM
(This post was last modified: Mar 27, 2025 08:15 PM by Yazata.)
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