Image Courtesy: ISAR Aerospace
As another testament to the growing popularity of reusable rockets in space launches, Isar Aerospace has secured its latest Series C round of funding. Considering this was provided in part by NATO’s new Innovation Fund, this is a major testament to the company’s potential viability.
To understand why, it’s worth discussing what the company plans to offer and the niche it’ll carve for itself in the launch vehicle services market.
Isar Aerospace is a German-based aerospace company founded in 2018. Its current focus is its Spectrum rocket, a two-stage reusable launch vehicle with a 1,000kg payload capacity. As with other reusable launch vehicles, its aim is to lower the barrier of entry into space, particularly for small and medium satellites.
The company has yet to test the Spectrum, but it has a fairly clear idea of what it wants to achieve with its rocket. The Spectrum will be powered by 9 engines in its first stage and 1 in its second stage, both of which will be fuelled by liquid oxygen and propane. This mix will offer a good balance between performance and environmental impact, allowing Isar to quickly enter the market.
In June 2024, Isar Aerospace announced a successful Series C round of funding. Totalling nearly 65 million euros, it brings its total funding up to around 400 million euros. This makes it the most capitalised new space company in Europe and shows the potential faith in the company’s offering.
Among Isar’s latest investors is the NATO Innovation Fund, a fairly novel fund created to invest in deep tech, such as satellites, launch vehicles, AI, etc. It’s backed by 24 NATO member states, which must be a major morale boost for Isar Aerospace.
But what will Isar do with this latest round of investment? Among other things, it plans to invest in its existing technology and scale-up its equipment ready for the production of its rockets. Its eventual plan, once Isar has built its facility, is to produce 40 Spectrum rockets a year.
A major advantage Isar Aerospace has over similar companies on the market is its focus on technological sovereignty. All of its technology is developed and owned in-house, giving it pretty much complete control over the future development of its rocket and internal components.
Similarly, the company plans to focus on automation and data-driven production to make its building process as industrialised as possible. This is a major advantage because it means Isar will be able to construct enough rockets per year to quickly carve out a niche for itself in the European launch services market.
Another advantage of its ownership of technology is that it can adjust its rocket design essentially on the fly to meet customer demands. While adapting a launch vehicle to a customer’s needs isn’t exactly a novel concept, the company plans to do it quickly and with far greater flexibility. Hopefully, this will translate into significant industry resilience.
Isar Aerospace has yet to announce a set date for its first test launch, although, as of March 2024, its intention was to start in the summer of the same year. Provided everything remains on track and goes to plan, we will likely see Isar enter the market in the not too distant future.
