Europe has its first commercial orbital rocket

欧洲拥有了首枚商业轨道火箭

Isar Aerospace gives the continent more options to “buy European” for space launches. Isar Aerospace 为欧洲大陆在太空发射方面提供了更多“购买欧洲制造”的选择。

German company Isar Aerospace has successfully launched Europe’s first entirely commercial orbital rocket. It attempted to achieve the feat last March, but that lasted all of 30 seconds before the vehicle crashed into the sea and exploded. This time the company managed to get the two-stage Spectrum into low Earth orbit from a Norwegian spaceport. 德国公司 Isar Aerospace 已成功发射了欧洲首枚完全商业化的轨道火箭。该公司曾在去年三月尝试实现这一壮举，但当时火箭仅飞行了 30 秒便坠入海中并爆炸。而这一次，该公司成功地从挪威的一个航天发射场将两级火箭“光谱号”（Spectrum）送入了近地轨道。

CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Metzler said in a press release: “Today, Isar Aerospace opened space from Continental Europe. Launch continues to be the largest bottleneck for the global space industry and from today on, there is a true alternative for commercial and institutional customers … Europe now has sovereign access to space. We have entered into a new chapter for European spaceflight.” 首席执行官兼联合创始人丹尼尔·梅茨勒（Daniel Metzler）在新闻稿中表示：“今天，Isar Aerospace 从欧洲大陆开启了通往太空的大门。发射仍然是全球航天工业最大的瓶颈，从今天起，商业和机构客户有了一个真正的选择……欧洲现在拥有了自主进入太空的能力。我们已经开启了欧洲航天飞行的新篇章。”

Until now, Europe has been largely reliant on Arianespace and Avio, which are largely funded by governments. The current global political climate makes the accomplishment particularly important for European countries that might view the United States as a less reliable partner at the moment and that have been cut off from Russian Soyuz rockets by the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The European Space Agency has also made “buy European” a cornerstone of its policies. 在此之前，欧洲在很大程度上依赖于主要由政府资助的阿丽亚娜航天公司（Arianespace）和 Avio 公司。当前的全球政治气候使得这一成就显得尤为重要，因为一些欧洲国家目前可能认为美国是一个不太可靠的合作伙伴，且由于俄罗斯入侵乌克兰，这些国家已被切断了使用俄罗斯“联盟号”（Soyuz）火箭的渠道。欧洲航天局也已将“购买欧洲制造”作为其政策的基石。