German rocket maker Isar Aerospace successfully reached orbit for the first time last weekend, marking a milestone for Europe’s commercial space industry as the company looks to ramp up launches to meet surging demand.
The Munich-based company’s Spectrum rocket successfully reached orbit and deployed its payload into low Earth orbit on Saturday, but this achievement only occurred on its second test flight.
Chief Commercial Officer Stella Guillén told CNBC on Monday that the space industry is “desperate” to add launch capacity and that Isar has a pipeline worth more than 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion), adding that the company is now focused on scaling up production.
The startup did not immediately say how many of those represented signed orders.
“The demand is huge,” Gillen said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.” “There are a lot of new … constellations and new projects coming up and they are actually being funded.”
Guillén said the company was focused on increasing production and launch frequency following Saturday’s successful flight, but warned that Europe’s launch infrastructure needs to be expanded to support industry growth.
Although Isar’s business size currently looks small compared to U.S. competitors like Elon Musk, space xthe company has big ambitions.
“At the moment, it’s all about scalability. So industrialization is something that’s really important to us and we’re ramping up,” she said. “What’s really important is increasing the scale and being able to launch not just one rocket, but hundreds of rockets.”
The privately held Munich-based company has attracted support from investors including Porsche, venture capital firms Lakestar and HV Capital, and the NATO Innovation Fund. The company raised €270 million in a Series D funding round in June to help scale up production and expand its global launch network.
It is seen as one of Europe’s most promising startups as the European Union looks to create a rival to SpaceX and its own commercial launch industry.
“This is the beginning of a new era,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday on broadcaster X, while EU defense and space commissioner Andrius Kubilius said “Europe’s independent access to space has received a major boost.”
