Satellite operators are welcoming a new entrant to the launch market after Germany’s Isar Aerospace reached orbit for the first time with its Spectrum rocket. The launcher carried a batch of CubeSats to low-Earth orbit from a spaceport in northern Norway, a success that followed a failed test flight last year. Among the customers watching was Japan-headquartered Astroscale, which had already signed two launch contracts with Isar before the flight.
Astroscale’s chief operating officer, Chris Blackerby, said he was awake around 5 am Japan time on Sunday to watch the webcast. He said the company had done extensive due diligence, sending teams to Isar’s manufacturing site and speaking with its technical leaders, and that the launch met every milestone, including payload deployment. Astroscale announced one of the two contracts with Isar days before the flight, and the earlier agreement was announced in March.
Both Astroscale missions are dedicated launches, which Blackerby described as essential for most of the company’s work. He said rideshare is possible but far more complicated, because the spacecraft must reach a specific orbit and a specific target. The two missions are ELSA-M, led by Astroscale’s UK division, which will capture and deorbit a satellite in Eutelsat’s OneWeb broadband constellation, and ADRAS-J2, partially funded by the Japanese space agency, which will attempt to grab a defunct Japanese rocket and remove it from orbit. ADRAS-J2 follows the ADRAS-J demo mission that inspected the same rocket body in 2024.
Blackerby said the company outgrew Rocket Lab’s Electron, which launched the smaller ADRAS-J. The ADRAS-J2 and ELSA-M spacecraft, in the 500 to 700 kilogram range, cannot fit on Electron, and Rocket Lab’s Neutron is not ready. He said few consistently reliable options exist in that one-ton class, a gap that pushed Astroscale to Isar despite the risk of flying on an unproven rocket. Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha is the only other proven vehicle in that range, he said, and it has had issues.
Isar’s backlog is dominated by government-backed missions from the European Space Agency, the European Union, and the Norwegian and German governments. Still, an established commercial customer choosing an unproven rocket stood out. Astroscale’s business focuses on satellite servicing and space junk mitigation, a segment that fits rockets the size of Spectrum for dedicated rides to orbit. Another servicing company, US-based Katalyst Space, launched a spacecraft in July toward a NASA astronomy satellite falling out of orbit, choosing Northrop Grumman’s seldom-used air-launched Pegasus XL. Technical problems prevented Katalyst from rescuing NASA’s aging Swift observatory.
Blackerby also pointed to uncertainty about SpaceX rideshare availability, citing recent SpaceX news and reported questions about the Falcon 9 program and Starship. He said the industry is watching other operators, including Blue Origin and Stoke, which recently raised funds. Europe’s space sector, meanwhile, is pursuing new paths to orbit alongside Arianespace and Avio, with Rocket Factory Augsburg, Spain’s PLD Space, and The Exploration Company also at work.
More technology news from TechManNews.
