Isar Aerospace's orbital success cheers satellite firms that still need dedicated rides to space
After German rocket maker Isar Aerospace reached orbit for the first time with its Spectrum vehicle, satellite servicing company Astroscale confirms it still relies on dedicated launches rather than rideshares, citing a shortage of reliable options in its payload class.
German launch company Isar Aerospace recently reached orbit for the first time with its Spectrum rocket, delivering a batch of CubeSats from a spaceport in northern Norway. The mission followed a failed test flight the previous year and is seen as a meaningful step for Europe's space sector, which is seeking alternatives to established providers Arianespace and Avio.
Japan-headquartered satellite servicing company Astroscale watched the launch live and had already signed two contracts with Isar Aerospace to launch its own missions — one in March and another just days before the successful test. Astroscale's willingness to bet on an unproven rocket is notable because the company is not part of the government-backed customer base that makes up most of Isar's current launch backlog.
Why dedicated launches matter
Astroscale chief operating officer Chris Blackerby explained that most of the company's missions require a dedicated rather than shared launch, since its satellites must reach a precise orbit to approach a specific target object. The company's newer missions, ELSA-M and ADRAS-J2, exceed the mass capacity of Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, while Rocket Lab's larger Neutron vehicle is not yet operational.
Blackerby said that despite talk of expanding launch capacity and falling prices industry-wide, reliable options remain scarce, particularly in the 500-to-1,000-kilogram payload class. The only other proven provider in that range, Firefly Aerospace, has faced its own technical issues with its Alpha rocket.
The ELSA-M mission aims to demonstrate deorbiting a defunct satellite, while ADRAS-J2 builds on the earlier ADRAS-J mission by attempting to grab and remove a discarded Japanese rocket body from orbit.
