The first fully privately-financed European launch vehicle bringing satellites into low Earth orbit, Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket, will launch from Norway: Isar Aerospace has signed an agreement with Norwegian Andøya Space to secure exclusive access for a period of up to twenty years to one of its launch pads on the island Andøya.
As a launch site operator, Andøya Space provides launch pads, payload integration facilities as well as the technical infrastructure on site.
– We are very happy and proud that we were able to secure our dedicated launch pad on Andøya, the best funded spaceport in continental Europe. The length and the exclusive nature of this agreement enables us to provide long-term turnkey launch solutions from European soil, says Daniel Metzler, CEO of Isar Aerospace. – The exclusivity provides us and, even more importantly, our clients with the greatest flexibility and planning security to bring small and medium satellites into earth’s orbit at any time with maximum flexibility and cost-efficiency.
Given its location far north at a coastline, Andøya Space can offer launch inclinations ranging from 87.4 to 108 degrees. These are favorable for sun synchronous as well as polar orbits. The flightpath ensures a trajectory whose ground track does not cross populated areas.
– This partnership is a big milestone for the European New Space industry as we will see the first satellite launches ever from a European start-up from European soil. We believe this is just the beginning of delivering on a global demand for launch capacities in Europe. It is with pleasure that we announce our partnership with Isar Aerospace which for us is expected to be one of the winners in this market in the coming years. We strongly believe in joint European initiatives and are proud to be part of this great space endeavor with Isar Aerospace, says Odd Roger Enoksen, CEO and President of Andøya Space.
Andøya Space has a long history in the suborbital launch business. Since the first launch of a civilian, suborbital research rocket in 1962, around 1.200 launches of sounding rockets and long duration balloons have taken place at Andøya. The company is now in the process of establishing a new launch site on Andøya island for small and medium satellites for polar and sun-synchronous orbits.
Isar Aerospace has been developing its Spectrum launch vehicle with a payload of over 1.000 kilograms including proprietary propulsion systems. With a pragmatic engineering approach, highly automated in-house manufacturing and a simple design, Isar Aerospace will reduce the costs of each rocket launch drastically. The founder-led company ensured that almost the entire value creation is carried out in-house for maximum flexibility. The total funding amounting to more than USD 100m stems almost exclusively from European investors.
About Isar Aerospace
Isar Aerospace, based in Ottobrunn/Munich, develops and builds launch vehicles for transporting small and medium-sized satellites as well as satellite constellations into earth’s orbit. The company was founded in 2018 by Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann and Markus Brandl. Since then, it has grown to more than 120 employees from around 30 nations with many years of hands-on rocket knowhow as well as experience within other high-tech industries. The company is privately financed by former SpaceX VP Bulent Altan as well as world-leading Venture Capital firms including Airbus Ventures, Apeiron, Earlybird, HV Capital, Lakestar, UVC Partners and Vsquared Ventures.
Find more information under: https://www.isaraerospace.com
About Andøya Space
Andøya Space has provided launch services for sounding rockets since 1962. The company is also involved in scientific ground-based instrumentation, unmanned aircraft, space education and testing/verification of new technologies. Andøya Space is from 2022 expanding its portfolio to include a launch site for small satellites. Andøya Space AS is 90% owned by The Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Fisheries.
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