A mostly privately funded German rocket startup based at Ottobrunn in "Space Valley", an industry cluster near Munich. Founded in 2018 by engineering students in a Bavarian cowshed, Isar Aerospace makes rockets for satellites. Its first rocket, Spectrum, launched from the Andøya Space Centre in Norway in March 2025, crashed into the sea but provided valuable data. In January 2026 the company was running countdown procedures at Andøya for what would be the first orbital launch from continental Europe. The company hopes to benefit from Germany's new space strategy, which promises to allocate €35bn to military space technology by 2030. Isar Aerospace is part of Munich's defence-tech cluster, alongside Helsing and Quantum Systems.
"I only touch base with reality on an as-needed basis!"