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<\/p>\nThe European private space launch provider Isar Aerospace, headquartered in Ottobrunn, Germany, is set to fly its Spectrum small-satellite launcher on its second mission after weeks of delays and aborted launch attempts. Over a year after Spectrum\u2019s first flight failed, the company is to fly the \u201cOnward and Upward\u201d mission from the Orbital Launch Pad at the Andoya Spaceport in Norway. Liftoff is scheduled for 20:00 UTC on Monday, June 15. However, Monday\u2019s attempt was scrubbed.<\/p>\n
Spectrum was originally scheduled to fly as early as Jan. 21, but that attempt was scrubbed due to a faulty pressurization valve. The launch was rescheduled for mid-March; however, due to a combination of weather, range safety issues, and an unexpected increase in engine fuel temperatures, the mission was ultimately scrubbed. A new April launch date would also be scrubbed due to a suspected leak in a composite overwrapped pressure vessel.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For \u201cOnward and Upward,\u201d Isar Aerospace will attempt to enter orbit. This flight, taking a trajectory to a Sun-synchronous orbit, will also carry Spectrum\u2019s first customer payloads, including five cubesats and one experiment; its objective, as per Isar Aerospace, is to qualify the launch vehicle under operational conditions.<\/p>\n
Spectrum\u2019s first flight, \u201cGoing Full Spectrum,\u201d launched on March 30, 2025, but failed after just 30 seconds into flight when the rocket lost attitude control after starting a pitch-over maneuver. An investigation found that a vent valve unexpectedly opened at the start of the pitch-over maneuver at T+25 seconds. The flight termination command, which cut off Spectrum\u2019s nine engines, was issued at T+30 seconds, and the rocket plunged into the sea near the launch site, missing the launch pad.<\/p>\n
The company upgraded Spectrum\u2019s software and increased the vehicle\u2019s margins as part of corrective actions after the failure. The Spectrum vehicle for \u201cOnward and Upward\u201d successfully passed integrated static fire tests, lasting 30 seconds, for both of its stages late last year, and is now on the launch pad.<\/p>\n
Spectrum\u2019s first stage uses nine Aquila engines with propane and liquid oxygen as propellants, while its second stage uses one vacuum-optimized Aquila engine using the same propellants. Propane is clean-burning and offers a higher specific impulse \u2014 a measure of fuel efficiency for rockets \u2014 than other carbon-based fuels.<\/p>\n
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Artist\u2019s impression of the Spectrum\u2019s second stage launching a payload into orbit. (Credit: Isar Aerospace)<\/p>\n
The second stage is designed for multiple in-flight restarts, eliminating the need for a kick stage to place payloads into their desired orbits. The rocket, 28 m tall and two meters in diameter, can carry 700 kg to a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) from And\u00f8ya or 1,000 kg to a low-Earth orbit (LEO) from Kourou, French Guiana, which Isar also plans to use as a launch site for Spectrum.<\/p>\n
Company News (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n By comparison, Rocket Lab\u2019s 18 m tall Electron carries up to 200 kg to SSO and 320 kg to LEO. Firefly\u2019s Alpha carries up to 630 kg to SSO and 1,030 kg to LEO. Spectrum, like Alpha, can serve the higher end of the small satellite market.<\/p>\n For this flight, Spectrum is carrying an experiment payload from the German space hardware manufacturer Dcubed, as well as cubesats from Technische Universitat Berlin (TU Berlin), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the University of Maribor, the Technische Universitat Wien Space Team (TU Wien), and EnduroSat. These five cubesats are the first satellites to fly aboard Spectrum.<\/p>\n Five payloads flying on \u201cOnward and Upward\u201d are shown here during launch processing. (Credit: Isar Aerospace)<\/p>\n TU Berlin\u2019s CybeeSat will demonstrate a miniaturized transceiver for the Short Duration Mission frequency band, cybersecurity applications, and hardware, including radiation-tolerant perovskite solar cells. NTNU\u2019s FramSat-1, built in Norway, is a demonstrator for Norwegian-built space technology.<\/p>\n The University of Maribor\u2019s TriSat-S will test battery performance after extended hibernation in space, along with a new optical navigation system, while the TU Wien SpaceTeamSat-1 will allow Austrian students to run software that they developed on the satellite.<\/p>\n Finally, EnduroSat\u2019s Platform 6 will fly technology demonstrations and customer payloads. Exolaunch, the German small-satellite integrator and flight provider, is participating in this flight with deployer equipment.<\/p>\n These payloads will, of course, only be able to fulfill their missions if they reach orbit, and that is far from guaranteed with this test flight. One major test for \u201cOnward and Upward\u201d will be successfully completing the pitch-over maneuver, where \u201cGoing Full Spectrum\u201d failed.<\/p>\n Another major test for Spectrum is stage separation and the performance of the second stage, along with fairing separation. Every second of data beyond what \u201cGoing Full Spectrum\u201d delivered is important for the vehicle\u2019s development.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_0474-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
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