Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil
Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil
德国私营火箭创造历史，首次从欧洲本土成功入轨
No rocket had ever reached orbit from Western European soil — until today. The German company Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Space Center in northern Norway today (Sept. 5) at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT; 10:12 p.m. local time in Norway). A little over seven minutes later, it etched its name into the record books, settling into an elliptical path around our planet.
在此之前，从未有火箭从西欧本土成功进入轨道——直到今天。德国 Isar Aerospace 公司于今日（9 月 5 日）美国东部时间下午 4:12（格林威治标准时间 2012 时；挪威当地时间晚上 10:12），从挪威北部的安多亚航天中心（Andøya Space Center）发射了其“光谱”（Spectrum）火箭。七分多钟后，该火箭成功进入地球椭圆轨道，载入史册。
“This is right now making history — making history for Spectrum, making history for Isar, making history for Europe,” Nikolaos Perakis, Spectrum chief engineer at Isar, said during today’s launch webcast, which the company produced in collaboration with NASASpaceflight. “I’m incredibly proud of this massive achievement.”
“此刻我们正在创造历史——为‘光谱’火箭创造历史，为 Isar 公司创造历史，也为欧洲创造历史，”Isar 公司“光谱”项目总工程师尼古拉斯·佩拉基斯（Nikolaos Perakis）在与 NASASpaceflight 合作制作的发射直播中说道，“我对这一巨大的成就感到无比自豪。”
This was Spectrum’s second bite at the apple: The two-stage, 95-foot-tall (28-meter-tall) rocket first flew in March 2025, lifting off from Andøya on a flight Isar called “Going Full Spectrum.” But, as often happens on debut missions, Spectrum suffered an anomaly that day; it came crashing back to Earth less than a minute after launch.
这是“光谱”火箭的第二次尝试：这枚高 95 英尺（28 米）的两级火箭曾于 2025 年 3 月首次从安多亚发射，Isar 将那次飞行称为“全光谱”（Going Full Spectrum）。然而，正如首飞任务中常发生的那样，当天“光谱”火箭出现了异常，在发射不到一分钟后坠回地面。
“A comprehensive investigation was completed within two months of the launch,” Isar wrote in a September 2025 update. “The findings identified an unintended opening of the vent valve and a loss of attitude control at the start of the roll maneuver as the initiating events that led to the in-flight failure.”
“发射后两个月内，我们完成了全面调查，”Isar 在 2025 年 9 月的更新中写道，“调查结果显示，排气阀意外开启以及在滚转机动开始时姿态控制失效，是导致飞行失败的初始事件。”
The company took the lessons learned that day and geared up for flight number two, “Onward and Upward,” which was originally supposed to launch in January. An issue with a pressurization valve nixed that plan, however, pushing the flight to March. Bad weather and an intruding boat scuttled multiple attempts that month, and an April 9 try was scrubbed due to a leak in a composite overwrapped pressure vessel.
公司吸取了那天的教训，为第二次飞行“勇往直前”（Onward and Upward）做好了准备，该任务原定于 1 月发射。然而，一个增压阀问题搁置了该计划，将飞行推迟到了 3 月。当月，恶劣的天气和闯入的船只导致多次尝试失败，而 4 月 9 日的尝试也因复合材料缠绕压力容器泄漏而取消。
Isar next tried to fly on June 15 but stood down after “detecting off-nominal behavior in the vehicle’s fluid systems,” according to a company update that day on X. But the company got that issue under control, rolling Spectrum back to the pad for today’s launch.
Isar 随后尝试在 6 月 15 日发射，但根据公司当天在 X 平台上的更新，在“检测到运载火箭流体系统出现非标称行为”后，公司决定推迟发射。不过，公司最终控制住了该问题，并将“光谱”火箭运回发射台，完成了今天的发射。
“We had some delays, obviously,” Petrakis said during the webcast. “We had some setbacks, but we came back stronger from them. And it validates this tremendous amount of engineering across all the teams, and that’s what brings us into orbit.”
“显然，我们经历了一些延误，”佩拉基斯在直播中说，“我们遇到了一些挫折，但我们从中变得更强大了。这验证了所有团队投入的巨大工程努力，正是这些努力将我们送入了轨道。”
Spectrum didn’t carry viable payloads on its debut flight, but it did today: Five cubesats and one non-deployable scientific experiment went up on “Onward and Upward.”
“光谱”火箭在首飞时并未携带有效载荷，但今天做到了：五颗立方星和一项不可部署的科学实验随“勇往直前”任务一同升空。
Spectrum’s upper stage needs to deploy those payloads before Isar can declare full mission success. And deployment won’t occur until after the rocket performs a circularization burn to get out of its initial elliptical orbit, which was estimated to feature a closest approach to Earth of 112 miles (180 kilometers) and a farthest-away point of 311 miles (500 km).
在 Isar 宣布任务圆满成功之前，“光谱”火箭的上面级还需要部署这些载荷。部署工作将在火箭执行圆化燃烧以脱离初始椭圆轨道后进行，该初始轨道的近地点预计为 112 英里（180 公里），远地点为 311 英里（500 公里）。
Whether or not Spectrum checks those boxes, today was a big day for Isar, which is thinking big with Spectrum. The company sees the rocket — which can haul about 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit — becoming a workhorse launcher of small to medium-size satellites down the road, and its infrastructure supports that vision. Isar says its manufacturing facility near Munich can churn out more than 30 of the rockets per year.
无论“光谱”火箭最终能否完成这些目标，今天对 Isar 来说都是重要的一天，该公司对“光谱”寄予厚望。该公司认为，这种能够将约 2,200 磅（1,000 公斤）载荷送入近地轨道的火箭，未来将成为中小型卫星的“主力”运载工具，其基础设施也支持这一愿景。Isar 表示，其位于慕尼黑附近的制造工厂每年可生产 30 多枚此类火箭。
“Flight 2 is a big, big milestone, big success,” Petrakis said. “But this is just the beginning. So I’m really looking forward to the next steps.”
“第二次飞行是一个非常重要的里程碑，也是巨大的成功，”佩拉基斯说，“但这仅仅是个开始。所以我非常期待接下来的步骤。”
Spectrum is the first rocket to reach orbit from Western Europe, but others have long flown from a different part of the continent — the Russian part. For example, Plesetsk Cosmodrome has hosted orbital launches for about six decades now. (About 25% of Russia lies in Europe, with the rest classified as part of Asia.)
“光谱”是第一枚从西欧进入轨道的火箭，但欧洲大陆的其他地区——即俄罗斯境内——早已进行过此类发射。例如，普列谢茨克航天发射场（Plesetsk Cosmodrome）进行轨道发射已有约六十年历史。（俄罗斯约 25% 的领土位于欧洲，其余部分被划归亚洲。）