German company becomes first in Europe to launch fully commercial orbital rocket
German company becomes first in Europe to launch fully commercial orbital rocket
德国公司成为欧洲首家发射全商业轨道火箭的企业
Isar Aerospace, founded in 2018 by three students at a German university, successfully launched a privately-developed rocket into low-Earth orbit Saturday from a Norwegian spaceport inside the Arctic Circle. The two-stage rocket, named Spectrum, became the first fully commercial launch vehicle in Europe to reach orbit. 由三名德国大学生于2018年创立的Isar Aerospace公司，周六从位于北极圈内的挪威航天发射场成功发射了一枚私营火箭进入近地轨道。这枚名为“光谱”（Spectrum）的两级火箭，成为欧洲首个进入轨道的全商业运载火箭。
With Saturday’s success, Isar is the clear leader among a pack of several European launch startups vying to inject some competition into Europe’s stagnant launch market. Isar’s 92-foot-tall (28-meter) Spectrum rocket lifted off at 4:12 pm EST (20:12 UTC) Saturday from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway, where it was 10:12 pm local time as the final bluish hues of daylight faded from the late summer sky. Seven minutes later, the rocket was in orbit. 随着周六的成功，Isar已成为欧洲多家试图为停滞不前的发射市场注入竞争活力的初创企业中的领跑者。Isar公司高92英尺（28米）的“光谱”火箭于周六美东时间下午4:12（协调世界时20:12）从挪威北部的安多亚航天发射场（Andøya Spaceport）升空。当时当地时间为晚上10:12，夏末的暮色正从天际褪去。七分钟后，火箭进入轨道。
“Today, Isar Aerospace opened space from continental Europe,” said Daniel Metzler, the company’s co-founder and CEO, in a press release. “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. “今天，Isar Aerospace从欧洲大陆开启了太空之门，”公司联合创始人兼首席执行官丹尼尔·梅茨勒（Daniel Metzler）在新闻稿中表示。“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。”
“We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before,” Metzler continued. “Europe now has sovereign access to space. We have entered into a new chapter for European spaceflight. I am incredibly proud of our team, that has made this success story from Europe possible. We will now focus on rapidly scaling launch vehicle production, deliver on our order pipeline, and meet surging global demand.” “我们用几年时间完成了欧洲航天工业过去几十年才能做到的事情，”梅茨勒继续说道。“欧洲现在拥有了自主进入太空的能力。我们开启了欧洲航天飞行的新篇章。我为我们的团队感到无比自豪，是他们创造了这一来自欧洲的成功故事。接下来，我们将专注于快速扩大运载火箭的生产规模，交付订单，并满足全球激增的需求。”
Metzler joined two classmates at the Technical University of Munich in 2018 to establish Isar, named for the river that runs through the Bavarian capital. Metzler, Josef Fleischmann, and Markus Brandl enjoyed tinkering with rocket parts in a campus workshop before deciding they might be able to make some money with their hobby. It wasn’t easy. Europe boasts a robust space sector with an impressive pedigree, but the industry is not known for its dynamism. 2018年，梅茨勒与慕尼黑工业大学的两名同学共同创立了Isar公司，公司名取自流经巴伐利亚首府的那条河流。梅茨勒、约瑟夫·弗莱施曼（Josef Fleischmann）和马库斯·布兰德尔（Markus Brandl）最初只是喜欢在校园工作室里摆弄火箭零件，后来才决定将这一爱好转化为商业项目。这并不容易。欧洲拥有强大的航天部门和令人瞩目的历史底蕴，但该行业向来以缺乏活力著称。
“Especially early on, back in 2018, when, frankly, there was no ‘New Space’ industry, especially on this side of the Atlantic, people said it will never work,” Metzler told reporters in a press briefing Sunday. “People will continue to always say this will not work, and that will not work, until we just prove them wrong. Giving up is not in our DNA.” “特别是在2018年刚起步时，坦率地说，当时大西洋这边根本没有所谓的‘新航天’产业，人们都说这行不通，”梅茨勒在周日的新闻发布会上告诉记者。“人们总会说这不行、那不行，直到我们用事实证明他们错了。放弃从来不是我们的基因。”
It took eight years for Isar to get to orbit, a timetable similar to other successful commercial rocket startups in the West. In that time, the company raised roughly $1 billion through several private financing rounds, and now has a workforce of nearly 500 employees. This makes Isar, by far, the most well-capitalized private launch company in Europe. Isar用了八年时间才成功入轨，这一时间表与西方其他成功的商业火箭初创公司相似。在此期间，该公司通过多轮私人融资筹集了约10亿美元，目前拥有近500名员工。这使得Isar成为迄今为止欧洲资金最雄厚的私营发射公司。
“Generally, I think you very much overestimate what you can do in the short term, but I think you underestimate what you can do in the long term,” Metzler said. “Don’t forget the human element behind all of this. There are engineers, technicians, operators, a strong support team, who just dare to dream, and against all odds, that team delivered.” “总的来说，我认为人们往往高估了短期内能做到的事情，却低估了长期内能实现的成就，”梅茨勒说。“不要忘记这一切背后的人文因素。有工程师、技术人员、操作员和强大的支持团队，他们敢于梦想，在克服重重困难后，团队最终交付了成果。”
Launch autonomy
发射自主权
Isar’s success is welcome news for the European Space Agency and Europe’s space industry as they seek lower-cost rockets to put their satellites into orbit. Europe’s incumbent launch providers, Arianespace and Avio, have relied upon billions of euros in funding from European governments to get their rockets off the ground. Those companies currently operate the Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets, which have proven reliable but are only marginally competitive, even with the assistance of government subsidies. 对于欧洲航天局和欧洲航天工业来说，Isar的成功是一个好消息，因为他们一直在寻求成本更低的火箭来将卫星送入轨道。欧洲现有的发射服务商阿丽亚娜航天公司（Arianespace）和Avio公司，一直依赖欧洲各国政府数十亿欧元的资助才能维持火箭发射。这些公司目前运营的“阿丽亚娜6号”（Ariane 6）和“织女星-C”（Vega-C）火箭虽然可靠，但即便有政府补贴，其竞争力也十分有限。
European space officials hope a jolt of competition will light a fire under the continent’s rocket industry. European governments are accustomed to footing the bill and having a say in where rockets are built, a procurement model known as geographical return, or geo-return. The paradigm is different with companies like Isar, which established themselves on a privately-funded basis, with ambitions to eventually attract commercial and government business. 欧洲航天官员希望通过引入竞争来激发欧洲火箭工业的活力。欧洲各国政府习惯于买单并对火箭的制造地点拥有话语权，这种采购模式被称为“地理回报”（geo-return）。而像Isar这样的公司则采用了不同的模式：它们建立在私人融资的基础上，并立志最终吸引商业和政府业务。
There is an important geopolitical angle to Isar Aerospace’s success Saturday, too. European startups have a harder time attracting venture capital investment than US companies, and the top-down architecture of Europe’s legacy space industry is often incompatible with the entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley. These headwinds are hitting Europe’s space industry as officials seek to bolster the continent’s strategic autonomy amid rocky relations with the United States and the Trump White House. Isar Aerospace周六的成功还有一个重要的地缘政治视角。与美国公司相比，欧洲初创企业更难吸引风险投资，且欧洲传统航天工业自上而下的架构往往与硅谷的创业文化不兼容。在与美国及特朗普政府关系紧张的背景下，欧洲官员正寻求加强欧洲的战略自主权，而这些阻力正冲击着欧洲的航天工业。
Today, Europe’s governments have to a pay a premium to launch their satellites on a European rocket. It is less expensive, but not politically palatable, to sign a contract with SpaceX to launch those payloads from the United States. “I think that it is important to realize that Europe can also move fast and deliver,” Metzler said. “Everybody across Europe, I think, realizes what this actually means because strategic access to space and not being dependent on a monopoly … is extremely important for our own security, for our own economy, for strategic autonomy. Everything [is] there for Europe to drive those things.” 如今，欧洲各国政府必须支付高额溢价才能使用欧洲火箭发射卫星。虽然与SpaceX签约从美国发射载荷成本更低，但在政治上却难以接受。“我认为重要的是要意识到，欧洲也能快速行动并交付成果，”梅茨勒说。“我认为欧洲各地的人们都意识到这意味着什么，因为战略性进入太空且不依赖于垄断……这对我们的安全、经济和战略自主权至关重要。欧洲已经具备了推动这一切的条件。”
Isar’s Spectrum made history in another way Saturday. 周六，“光谱”火箭还在另一个方面创造了历史。