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Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil
- hn_submit 1mo ago[flagged]
- blini-kot 1mo agoPlesetsk is also european soil.
- kylecazar 1mo agoThey're using "Europe" as political shorthand for Western Europe
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- seszett 1mo agoKourou as well, although maybe a different definition of European.
- sisve 1mo agoWould maybe call it European territory but not soil. But yeah, as you say it's how you define it.
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- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- mrtksn 1mo agoEurope is a vibe based concept, a place can be European or not depending on the vibes. Even the east west central etc. are completely vibe based. Portugal for example is Eastern European country, meanwhile Romania is central according to some textbooks.
- nailer 1mo agoPortugal is not Eastern European and it would be incredibly rare for Europeans to identify it as such. Have you been to Europe in your life?
- culi 1mo agoIt's mostly a meme https://old.reddit.com/r/PortugalIsEastEurope/ https://old.reddit.com/r/PortugalIsEastEurope/
- m4rtink 1mo agoYeah, Romania being central Europe - impossible nonsense. Because Czech Republic is in central Europe!
- ShinyLeftPad 1mo agoYeah, just like Toronto is American soil
- MisterMunchkin 1mo agoHow can it be the first European rocket? There’s the ESA! Are you telling me we have all these organisations and none of them have ever launched from their own continent?
- dmaa 1mo agoThey launch from Guiana afaik
- echoangle 1mo agoFrench Guiana to be exact, which is a different country
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- tristanj 1mo agoEdit: Misread
- globular-toast 1mo agoThey meant French Guiana is a different country to Guyana... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guianas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guianas
- loeg 1mo agoEurope isn't on or remotely near the equator, which is somewhat favorable for launches.
- smitty1e 1mo ago> The German company Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Space Center in northern Norway today To speculate, they could be targeting a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_orbit
- ChrisArchitect 1mo agoIsar Aerospace launch into orbit [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1DUqLjecc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1DUqLjecc (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580325 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580325)
- consumer451 1mo agoThanks for that video. Super cool that they got pro streamers NSF involved. Really interesting that they will be launching from Canada as well.
- Aboutplants 1mo agoReally beautiful with the rocket shining brightly upon the mountains as it lifts off
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- hinkley 1mo ago[flagged]
- milleramp 1mo agoMade with imipolex g?
- arthurpatch 1mo ago[flagged]
- verzali 1mo agoFantastic job!
- hypfer 1mo agoThis is a huge success, but it I think also tells us that the EU is further decoupling itself from the US. Slowly but steadily. Which is obviously the right thing to do, but it's interesting that it's not just a hypothetical anymore.
- gilliethefoil 1mo ago[dead]
- shevy-java 1mo ago[flagged]
- ericmay 1mo ago> Just look at how today the USA tried to hand over land of Ukraine to Putin Was it the land that Russia currently controls and Ukraine is very unlikely to retake? There's a spectrum between ideological behavior and pragmatic behavior. If Ukraine gives up this land and achieves peace, maybe it's worth it. I'm not suggesting it definitely is but at least the US is trying to negotiate or find some sort of solution, even if it's not going well. In retrospect the US should have prepared for war and been willing to fight to uphold what was agreed to with Russia but that would have been a hard sell. > So, no more support to that crazy country. Nah Europe will still support it. Nothing will change there. But if you want things to change, we can completely withdraw from NATO, move bases back from Europe where we see fit, and un-sanction Russia while no longer providing support to Ukraine in any fashion and no longer sell weapons to Europe. That would be a disaster for Europe, which is why I tend to think comments like this are either ignorant, or pro-Russia/Iran/China with the intent to further inflame whatever tensions exist.
- JohnTHaller 1mo agoRussia's word has been ironclad each time it's been given to Ukraine previously. It surely would be the same this time.
- shevy-java 1mo agoThe sooner Europe cuts itself off from the US crazy billionaires, the better - on all levels (software and manufacture processes are the two biggest issues). Today we already could see the US surrender team crawling up to dictator Putin. Enough is enough - agent Krasnov needs to be isolated.
- manlymuppet 1mo agoI don’t think America is so far gone. We have issues sure, but I for one still believe that we can be better. Trump be damned, Europe and America are stronger when they work together.
- samrus 1mo agoAmericans have to hope that the US will move past trumo and not repeat that mistake, but for europeans its most prudent to prepare for a world where such a corrupt wannabe distator doesnt have have that much leverage over them. The US and europe would be stronger together if the US acted in good faith. Absent that, decoupling is the right choice
- sbuttgereit 1mo agoOr maybe Europe just thinks if you can't beat 'em, join 'em: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/world/europe/germany-afd-saxony-anhalt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-1A.77wh.SWEaRKC-TJ20 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/world/europe/germany-afd-...
- peterfirefly 1mo agoGermany also has a crazy Communist party that is more in the pocket of Russia than AfD is -- but somehow that is almost never mentioned, not even in German media. It's quite big and influential.
- randomNumber7 1mo ago
- capocasa 1mo agoThis is such a breath of fresh air
- GoGermany 1mo ago[flagged]
- chabska 1mo agoNot for the Sami people who have to inhale the rocket exhaust blast.
- consumer451 1mo agoIstar's Spectrum rocket does not use RP-1 (kerosene), like Falcon 9 and Electron, which burns very dirty. They are using liquid propane, which burns extremely cleanly, especially when combined with their liquid oxygen. There is a lot of noise, but that should be the only pollution generated by this launch.
- consumer451 1mo agoOops, correct spelling is Isar.
- NetMageSCW 1mo agoThe first and second stages being disposed of aren’t pollution?
- consumer451 1mo agoYeah, that's fair. I was thinking only locally. However, I would hope they are dropping both stages somewhere relatively responsible. I guess I don't know where that is for polar orbits.
- GoGermany 1mo ago[flagged]
- artisinal 1mo agoI wonder whether the Sámi people have been consulted or compensated for the use of their traditional lands as a rocket launch site. Given Norway’s long history of suppressing Sámi people and their land rights, I'd be interested to know how that was handled.
- peterfirefly 1mo agoDid the Sami compensate the Indo-Europeans they displaced?
- adolph 1mo agoInteresting: Just south of the launchpad lies Bukkekjerka, a protected Sami cultural monument. Prior to Christianity, sacrifices were made within a cave facing the sea. In most recent times, for the past half-century, there has been an annual open-air church service, which attracts many from across Andøya – perhaps even some who remember or even resided in the disappeared town of Haugnes. https://www.cryopolitics.com/2022/10/06/on-norways-auroral-edge-a-spaceport-takes-shape/ https://www.cryopolitics.com/2022/10/06/on-norways-auroral-e...
- talon8635 1mo agoIn this house we believe the first Neanderthal did not consent
- blablabla123 1mo agoThe first thing that came into my mind was the fragile ecosystem up there. All considered this doesn't sound like a very thoughtful process. And of course as pointed out elsewhere, Norway isn't even EU. I wonder how happy people were if rocket launches were done in rural Western Europe.
- godwinson__4-8 1mo agoA good historical nugget is that the Americans got a huge leg up in the space race by importing the Germans who worked on the V-2 program. Germans killed Soviets by the millions. If you were a German of value (like a rocket scientist) you were eager to surrender to the Americans before the Soviets could get their hands on you. If you were the Americans, you distrusted the Soviets already, so it was a win-win. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
- jgtrosh 1mo agoThis went both ways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Osoaviakhim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Osoaviakhim
- godwinson__4-8 1mo agoYes a good thing to point out, however the American initiative was more successful, was it not? Largely because raw numbers aside, most of the top talent wanted to avoid the Soviets and thus the US was the only logical option. That is, part of what made the American job on this easier is top German talent anticipated some "Operation Osoaviakhim" (or worse) scenario and thus sought out the US as the only way to get out ahead of it. von Braun made major contributions to NASA. My understanding is relatively speaking, the Soviets got the scraps. Not that it made no impact, but just to say the impact of the Germans on the American space program should not be understated, and I don't think it would be accurate to assess the fruits of these two competing operations as equivalent. von Braun and others had a major hand in the Saturn V. Who did the Soviets manage to seize of equal caliber? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun
- lkey 1mo ago[flagged]
- generuso 1mo agoUSA got the cream of the crop of the managers of the German missile program, while the USSR got the workers, who actually did the work with their hands and built the parts for the rockets. (One exception was Helmut Gröttrup, the head of the V-2’s guidance and telemetry systems.) In fact, after the war the USSR has briefly reconstituted the manufacturing of V-2 in Germany, employing thousands of people, before transplanting this entire industry to the USSR. This dramatically lifted the level of Soviet manufacturing and relevant metallurgy. von Braun's dissertation was on engine design and testing. But when he built the Redstone missile in the USA, he ordered the engine from a US company -- the engine which was already a generation ahead, compared to the imported German engines which the US engineers studied after the war. Meanwhile, the Soviets have developed even better engines, completely on their own, though with the important parts built using the materials and the equipment brought from Germany. So it is debatable whether having the German higher-ups and having a greater continuity with German design philosophy was a good thing or a liability. It is less well known, but France have also imported a significant number of ex-Peenemunde engineers for their program. And their engines developed in a way different from both the American ones and the Soviet ones -- which definitively shows that although internalizing the German know-how was the starting point for everyone, it did not define the path of subsequent development. Of course, the engines were not the whole story. The Germans took to the USA the advanced prototypes of the inertial guidance systems which were developed for the missiles that were supposed to come after the V-2. And the Soviets got Helmut Gröttrup. This did have its effects in both cases.
- StanislavPetrov 1mo agoThe Germans also launched the first rocket to make it to space on June 20th 1944, though it wasn't privately made.
- edg5000 1mo agoSpace, yes. Orbit, no. From what I understand, orbit is much harder to achieve. Pedantic, but still.
- whatever1 1mo agoYeah in general it’s good advice to not existentially challenge the Germans.
- MadrasTh0rn 1mo agoOne can hope they can repurpose this to a shield for Ukraine
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- formvoltron 1mo agoi was under the impression that the closer you launch from the equator, the less sustained force you need. wrong?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1mo agoRight. You get a free ~1000mph from the equator.
- m4rtink 1mo agoDepending on the inclination - not much help to launch into a polar orbit for example.
- ____tom____ 1mo ago> "The findings identified an unintended opening of the vent valve How do they figure things like this out, after a rocket goes "boom"?
- noisy_boy 1mo agoTelemetry?
- peterfirefly 1mo agoSomething they might have is a lot of strain gauges around the rocket. They can tell if the rocket is bending and compressing (and how) -- but they are also essentially high-speed microphones. Valves make sounds (cause vibrations) and they are easy to spot if you have high-speed samples of your strain gauges. You can also triangulate distances if you have multiple strain gauges with synchronized high-speed samples. It's good practice to dump data into several flash memories + transmit live. The live transmit is likely only a small summary of all the data that they capture -- distributed flash memory locations is a cheap way to increase the chances of getting useful data after a boom/crash (put them in orange water tight containers that can float + give them a beep-beep radio transmitter).
- YayGermany 1mo ago[flagged]
- neya 1mo ago> from European soil When someone emphasizes nationalism a bit too much that's usually only because they don't have enough technical merit to talk about.
- fsh 1mo agoLaunching far off the equator makes it more difficult and is therefore a bigger technological achievement.
- ButlerianJihad 1mo agoThe selection of launch site takes the orbital inclination into account. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit The "Onward and Upward" cube sats were deployed to Sun-synchronous orbits, with a roughly polar inclination. Similarly, launches from USSF Base Vandenberg take a southerly trajectory, so it can be used for orbits like that. Rocket launches from continental Europe have been challenging because of the population centers, and the unpopularity of things exploding over their heads, and falling on their houses and businesses. USA and Russia have some quite ideal sites that avoid flying over populated areas.
- fsh 1mo agoYou are still ~500 m/s short compared to launching on an equatorial orbit from the equator.
- ButlerianJihad 1mo agoVelocity is a vector, not simply a rate. Launches and orbits are three-dimensional. What would be a great technological achievement would be launching from French Guiana (5.2° N) and then making a plane-change maneuver to achieve a polar orbit (90° inclination). All that bonus eastward velocity from the Earth's rotation would turn into a penalty they'd need to compensate for no reason, when they had a spaceport more suitable for that polar inclination. Try this related concept: https://youtu.be/sod3ofdUYTw?si=U7dz_LcRQ0M44tAU https://youtu.be/sod3ofdUYTw?si=U7dz_LcRQ0M44tAU And the spherical cow jumps frictionlessly over the Moon!
- sinuhe69 1mo agoCongratulations! An immensely important achievement, I’d say. IMO, this success has a great implication for accessibility and sovereignty of the EU. Although ESA can launch from French Guiana, the spaceport is an ocean-away from Europe! That fact alone affects the cost and the launch cadence for Europe greatly. Now they prove they can launch directly from Norway with their own production from Munich and elsewhere and that has immense potential for the future: much higher launch cadence, significant lower cost and always-on accessibility. The only way Europe can have a Starlink similar network is to launch it from their own soil and reuse the first stage. Also from the perspective of security, launching spy and other military satellites from EU soil is the only practical possibility in this political climate.
- aaron695 1mo ago[dead]
- dakolli 1mo agoDont worry the US will hoodwink Europe back into be a compliant vassal of the Empire in a few years when they elect a democrat who pretends to be liberal and acting in good faith, probably AOC(ia).
- 1294899 1mo agoWhy is this downvoted? This is exactly how US foreign policy works. The only difference with Trump is that he says things out loud. This is 100% what is going to happen. US foreign policy relies on deception and decade long plans. The big plans are ruling the Middle East and squash opposition (Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq done, Iran pending). To that end Russia had to be kept busy, therefore the Ukraine proxy war, which has the additional benefit of tying up the EU and cut it off from Russian natural resources. It makes the EU dependent on the US as an energy exporter. These plans are old and both parties have diligently executed them. Even with the Greenland annexation threats there are Democrats who think it wouldn't be a bad idea, but you should not say it out loud.
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- dermacentor 1mo agoWhy are they on X? As a European company, should they not be posting instead from W Social?
- sgt 1mo agoWhat's W social?
- yanhangyhy 1mo agoCongrats! didn't know german has this ability before.
- KingOfCoders 1mo agoInteresting that it uses Propane fuel and "weaves" the rockets with carbon composite.
- NetMageSCW 1mo agoEspecially since SpaceX decided that was too expensive for a disposable rocket or even a reusable one.
- num42 1mo agoCongrats! How come European companies still haven't managed to match SpaceX's capabilities? Europe has an incredible talent pool, especially in aerospace, and some of the world’s best expertise in precision engineering, instrumentation, sensors, avionics, and other hard-tech subsystems. A huge amount of the expertise and supply chain for these components is concentrated in Europe. So what are we missing? Is it mainly systems integration, manufacturing scale, risk tolerance, organizational structure, or the willingness to iterate as aggressively as SpaceX? It feels like Europe has many of the pieces needed to build world-class launch systems, but hasn't yet put them together at the same scale and speed.
- consumer451 1mo agoProbably the biggest thing is that capital in the EU is far more conservative.
- generuso 1mo agoIncidentally, the early investment for Isar came from Bülent Altan, the Turkish ex-SpaceX guy who was in charge of the guidance system for Falcon-1, Falcon-9 and Dragon.
- consumer451 1mo agoVery interesting, thanks. It looks like he was an angel investor in Isar, and then co-founded a VC firm that continued to invest in Isar: https://alpinespace.vc/ https://alpinespace.vc/
- logifail 1mo ago> So what are we missing? There are some (many?) European companies which are considered as least as much as a jobs program as anything else. In 2018, Alain Charmeau (in)famously expressed frustration with SpaceX in an interview with Der Spiegel and rejected reusability with these words: “Let us say we had ten guaranteed launches per year in Europe and we had a rocket which we can use ten times—we would build exactly one rocket per year,” he said. “That makes no sense. I cannot tell my teams: ‘Goodbye, see you next year!’” https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/ariane-chief-seems-frustrated-with-spacex-for-driving-down-launch-costs/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/ariane-chief-seems-f... from the original https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/alain-charmeau-die-amerikaner-wollen-europa-aus-dem-weltraum-kicken-a-1207322.html https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/alain-charmeau-d... A more recent example would be the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project which was officially cancelled in June 2026, due to (?) industrial rivalry and leadership disputes, with a side order of politics.
- pbkompasz 1mo agoJust for context, when Boeing completed the 747 Airbus wasn't even a thing. 5 decades later they have caught up in most categories and even surpassed in some. Who knows, maybe something similar will happen again?
- cookiewill 1mo agoAirbus did not come into existence out of nowhere. It is the result of merging some companies that had some ancestry going back to the time of aviation pioneers.
- kakacik 1mo agoAlmost nothing starts from 0, its not a very smart idea to ignore generations of experience and wrong decisions. Tesla also started with musk joining already well working EV startup, didn't it.
- k4rli 1mo agoNothing was "started" by him joining. Name was the same and they were already producing car(s). He did bring his skills for fraud and puffery though.
- NetMageSCW 1mo agoName a car they were producing before when Elon became the company’s chairman. With their three employees. Revisionist history because of your feelings is still wrong.
- NetMageSCW 1mo agoTesla was not a well working startup - they had no funds and he was the fourth employee. They had some ideas about making an electric car.
- neuronic 1mo agoIt's a posterboy project for the EU and for all its insane complexities and French people, it's working! I am watching Belugas land here in Hamburg almost every day :)
- ETH_start 1mo agoWhat Europe needs to do to spur its tech sector is lower taxes. A 2018 study shows tax increases significantly reduce innovation. A 1% increase in the top marginal income tax rate leads to a 2% reduction in patents and inventors, while a similar increase in corporate taxes causes even larger declines. The study is quite rigorous too: https://open.substack.com/pub/maximumprogress/p/tax-cuts-and-innovation https://open.substack.com/pub/maximumprogress/p/tax-cuts-and...
- nirmeet011011 1mo ago[flagged]
- bahmboo 1mo agoFYI Norway is not in the EU. Whether they are European is a matter of perspective and I'm not touching that subject any further! Deutschland is in the EU.
- peterfirefly 1mo agoNorway is as close as you can get without formally being a member. It's not just the EEA, it's also a member of essentially all EU programs that aren't closed off for non-member states. That Norway is European is not a matter of perspective.
- bahmboo 1mo agoDo you know any Norwegians? I don't have an opinion but many of my Norwegian relatives think the European thing is not just terminology and is a label from outside. Swedes and Fins too. [edit: I changed a fair bit of wording in the first few minutes of the post]
- flohofwoe 1mo ago> Whether they are European is a matter of perspective What? Scandinavia isn't part of Europe now? The "EU" is an organization, "Europe" is a continent. "European" includes everybody living in Europe (and yes, that even includes the Brits and most Russians).
- bahmboo 1mo agoI shouldn't have to explain this stuff. The Nordic countries are exceptionalist in my understanding from talking to them. It's an easy search to go down this rabbit hole. It's a little different from Catalan wanting to be independent but still European. This is not my area of knowledge I have just been exposed multiple times first hand. Where are my scando fin buddies to chime in? Lulz
- bahmboo 1mo agoLooking at a map Norway is on the same continent as Vietnam so that statement makes no sense. Please have some sort of context and understanding before making such statements. They "seem" to be part of Europe but they have historically wanted to have it both ways: one foot in one foot out. Go research it yourself I am probably totally wrong! HN comments are not a reference source.
- Alien1Being 1mo agoReally sad to see that Europe is so far behind. Consider India, once single country vs all of Europe: 88 orbital launches successfully reached orbit using Indian built rockets starting in 1980. This is out of 104 individual liftoffs. Over 46 years of successful launches.
- serial_dev 1mo agoIt’s the national equivalent of: How long it takes you to ship this project? Two weeks. And if you get help from Alice, Bob, and Charlie? Then it’s a year.
- sirnicolaz 1mo agoAdvancement of a culture is not only measured by rocket launches.
- MrDresden 1mo agoThe fact not many launches happen from continental Europe has nothing to do with capabilities of the space industry or lack of expertise, but rather location. Europe is far from the equator and densely populated so rocket launches from there are more costly, and failures can have a higher risk to life. Arianne space has had 350+ successful missions after 45 years of operations, with most of those launching from overseas territories.
- gspr 1mo agoAs a European, I'm glad functioning sewage systems took priority over an orbital launch capability.
- twenty-fifty-ni 1mo ago[flagged]
- pestatije 1mo agowhy the animosity? you should be bitter just with the brits, and they dont consider themselves european anyways
- nathan-34 1mo ago[flagged]
- sbseitz 1mo agoI'd rather see something owned by the people, not private.
- s_dev 1mo agoI'd rather Germany had been first on the Moon, instead of the US. Disclosing a preference isn't necessarily insightful commentary on achievements.
- swiftcoder 1mo agoThis is an article title that needs a ton of caveats (the ESA launch site in French Guiana is indeed part of the European Union, and Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome is within continental Europe). Nonetheless the underlying achievement is impressive, and it's very good to see more private operators competing in space flight
- ajjahs 1mo ago[dead]
- nick_ 1mo ago*Privatized profit. The ~210mil € of public funding wasn't private. It is now I guess, lol. EDIT: Title has been updated so my comment seems out of context.
- eMpHaSe 1mo agoCongrats to my country! After a lot bad news around car industry, a good hope for another heavy industrial branch.
- generuso 1mo agoIf Isar will get a large scale commitment from the government(s) to launch the OneWeb 2.0 constellation, as the European alternative to US, Chinese and Russian systems, they may well become a major launch provider. And of course they are already working on a much larger reusable rocket. Although the original OneWeb satellites were assembled in the USA, they were developed in Europe and the components were always sourced predominantly from Europe, Canada, and Africa, with only some parts produced by the European companies in the USA, and even fewer parts sourced from the US companies. It is a very European satellite.