Mission Success for 'Onward and Upward'
10:09 GMT+2 ∙ 09 Sep, 2026
Munich, Andøya, 9 September 2026 – Mission 'Onward and Upward' marked a milestone for European commercial spaceflight. On just the second flight of Isar Aerospace's launch vehicle Spectrum, all customer payloads were successfully released in orbit. Most of the satellites have already established contact and begun on-orbit operations.
The mission carried five CubeSats from TU Berlin, the University of Maribor, EnduroSat, NTNU and the TU Wien Space Team, as well as a technology demonstration from Dcubed, which successfully completed its mission objectives.
The launch vehicle’s first stage completed a controlled descent into a designated corridor in the Norwegian Sea.
The payloads were selected through the German Space Agency at DLR's Microlauncher Competition, which provides startups and educational institutions with affordable access to space. The initiative is funded through ESA Boost!.
For Isar Aerospace, this mission is not a finish line, but another step toward building sovereign launch capability at scale. The company is ramping up production at its new headquarters near Munich with the capacity to manufacture up to 40 launch vehicles annually, while continuing to expand its international network of test and launch infrastructure.