Abstract:
German rocket company Isar Aerospace successfully achieved orbit for the first time last weekend, setting a milestone for the European commercial aerospace industry. The company plans to increase the frequency of launches to meet what it says is booming market demand. The Munich-based company's Spectrum rocket successfully entered orbit on Saturday and successfully released its payload in low-Earth orbit, in just its second test flight.
Stella Gillen, the company's chief commercial officer, said in an interview on Monday that the company's current focus is to expand production scale; the aerospace industry is "urgently hungry" for more launch capacity, and Isar Aerospace holds project backlog orders of more than 10 billion euros (equivalent to $11.6 billion).
The startup did not immediately say how much of that amount represented a formal signed contract.
Gillen said: "The market demand is very strong. A large number of new satellite constellations and new projects are emerging, and these projects have received financing."
Giron said that after the success of Saturday's launch, the company will focus on increasing production capacity and launch frequency, but at the same time warned that Europe's space launch infrastructure also needs to expand to support industry development.
Although Isar Aerospace’s current business scale is far smaller than that of American competitors such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the company has ambitious development goals.
"The core at this stage is to achieve large-scale production. Industrialization is very important to us, and we are making every effort to expand production." She said, "The goal is to achieve large-scale launch, not just one rocket, but hundreds of rockets."
The Munich-based private company has received multiple investments from investors including Porsche, venture capital firm Lakestar, HV Capital and the NATO Innovation Fund. In June this year, the company completed Series D financing, raising 270 million euros to expand production and build a global launch network.
The EU hopes to create a local commercial space launch industry that can compete with SpaceX, and Isar Aerospace is regarded as one of the most promising start-ups in Europe.
German Chancellor Mertz posted on the
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