Signal Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

Summary

German company Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket reached orbit on September 5, 2026, lifting off from Andøya Spaceport in Norway at 22:12 CEST. The mission, named 'Onward and Upward,' was the vehicle's second flight and marked the first orbital launch by a private company from continental European soil. The rocket carried six commercial and educational CubeSats — CyBEEsat (TU Berlin), TriSat-S (University of Maribor), Platform 6 (EnduroSat), FramSat-1 (NTNU), SpaceTeamSat1 (TU Wien Space Team), and the non-separable experiment Let It Go (Dcubed) — deploying them into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit. Spectrum stands 28 meters tall, is 2 meters in diameter, uses ten engines, and is designed to carry up to 1,000 kg to low Earth orbit. The launch gives Europe an independently developed commercial launcher capable of delivering satellites from its own territory, reducing reliance on non-European launch providers.