Isar Aerospace postpones second launch of Spectrum rocket

Due to a technical problem, Isar Aerospace has cancelled the launch of its Spectrum rocket. The German space company will announce a new date shortly.

“We are aborting today's launch attempt to resolve an issue with a pressure valve,” the company announced via the microblogging service X. The mission will be postponed to a new launch window.

The Spectrum is scheduled to lift off from the Andøya Space launch site in Norway. The window was supposed to open around 9 p.m. on January 21st. However, Isar Aerospace cancelled the launch a few hours earlier.

Five CubeSats and one experiment are flying along

The “Onward and Upward” mission is the second launch of the Spectrum rocket. The goal of the mission is to validate the carrier rocket's important systems under operating conditions, the company announced. During the flight, Spectrum is to carry five CubeSats and one experiment as payload.

The Spectrum first flew at the end of March last year. The flight lasted only about 30 seconds. Nevertheless, the Ottobrunn-based company considered it a success: “We had a clean start, 30 seconds of flight time, and were even able to validate our flight termination system,” said Daniel Metzler, CEO and one of the founders of Isar Aerospace, at the time.

The next five rockets are already under construction. In addition, the company plans to open a new, 40,000 square meter production facility near Munich this year.

Isar Aerospace is a spin-off of the Technical University of Munich and one of three German companies developing their own rockets. The others are Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), a subsidiary of satellite manufacturer OHB, and Hyimpulse Technologies, a spin-off of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

(wpl)