Isar Aerospace wins microlauncher competition and receives 11 million euros
Munich, 30 April 2021 - The Federal German Government and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) awarded Isar Aerospace with the support for a 11 million euros contract through its C-STS programme run by the European Space Agency, designed to strengthen commercial space transportation services in Europe. Isar Aerospace will use the money for the further development of its first Spectrum launch vehicle. The German government, in return, gets a payload of up to 150 kilograms on two Spectrum flights into Earth orbit. This is the first time the German government buys launch services from a purely privately financed space company. The competition was initiated and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and designed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
“We are honoured that the jury has chosen Isar Aerospace and that we have now the opportunity to provide our launch services to the German government. I am particularly pleased about the paradigm shift this implies: For the first time, a government contract has been awarded to a purely privately financed space launch start-up in Europe. The government is no longer funding technological development but is becoming an anchor customer. I believe this is exactly the right way to make the European space industry internationally competitive”, says Daniel Metzler, CEO of Isar Aerospace.
In the past three years, Isar Aerospace has raised private funding of around 100 million euros. The space start-up has recently announced its first customer, Airbus Defence and Space. This constitutes the first major launch contract between an established space company and a privately financed European launcher company. In addition, Isar Aerospace has developed the entire launch vehicle in-house. The company is currently conducting hardware and flight software tests.
The German microlauncher competition awards 25 million euros to German space start-ups that develop commercial launch services. The competition was initiated and funded by the German BMWi as part of ESA’s C-STS program. The decision was made by a jury chaired by Thomas Jarzombek (Member of the German Bundestag). Criteria included the number of customer and launch contracts, the shareholder structure and the technological progress.
About Isar Aerospace
Isar Aerospace, based in Ottobrunn/Munich, develops and builds launch vehicles for transporting small and medium-sized satellites as well as satellite constellations into earth’s orbit. The company was founded in 2018 by Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann and Markus Brandl. Since then, it has grown to more than 120 employees from around 30 nations with many years of hands-on rocket know-how as well as experience within other high-tech industries. The company is privately financed by former SpaceX VP Bulent Altan as well as world-leading Venture Capital firms including Airbus Ventures, Apeiron, Earlybird, HV Capital, Lakestar, UVC Partners and Vsquared Ventures.
Find more information under: https://www.isaraerospace.com
Press contact
Tina Schmitt
E tina.schmitt@isaraerospace.com
