Isar Aerospace hopes to overtake SpaceX as world’s leading launch company

Daniel Metzler, chief executive of Germany’s Isar Aerospace, said on Tuesday at a conference hosted by the SZ newspaper that he hopes his firm might one day surpass Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the world’s leading launch company. The comment positions Isar Aerospace as a challenger to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Metzler made the remark while discussing his company’s ambitions at the newspaper-hosted event.

Metzler established Isar Aerospace in 2018 together with two fellow students. The student-founded company has since built a large backlog of launch orders that Metzler attributes in part to European military clients. European militaries are among the customers behind Isar’s order book. At the conference, he framed Isar Aerospace as a rival to the established American operator.

Isar Aerospace reached orbit in September as the first European company backed entirely by private funding. Metzler used that September orbital success to argue Isar had progressed quickly. He contrasted SpaceX’s four attempts to reach orbit with Isar’s two attempts. He offered the comparison during the SZ newspaper conference as evidence of rapid development relative to the established United States competitor.

According to Metzler, demand for Isar’s 2028 launch slots exceeds capacity by a factor of 15. He linked the oversubscription to a shift in government procurement toward European providers for defense satellite launches. Metzler offered the connection at the SZ newspaper conference on Tuesday. He described government buying patterns as a source of Isar’s military backlog.

European governments now prefer European providers rather than overseas firms to launch defense satellites. Metzler described that preference as a driver of Isar’s large backlog of launch orders from military clients. European military clients are part of the company’s order book. Metzler made the statement at the Tuesday conference.

Isar Aerospace must turn away 14 customers for each rocket it flies, Metzler said. He identified capacity, rather than demand, as the big bottleneck constraining the company’s growth. The customer-to-rocket ratio was offered by Metzler to illustrate that demand exceeds current launch capacity.

Eighteen months before his remarks, 85 percent of inquiries at Isar were commercial and 15 percent were military, but the balance has since reversed. Metzler described the shift from mostly commercial inquiries to a majority military share as an illustration of changing demand for European launch services.

Isar Aerospace is building reusable rockets to increase capacity and lower launch costs, with the goal of matching SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 has already demonstrated reusable first-stage flight. Metzler’s reusability effort aims to close the gap with the American company’s workhouse vehicle.

For Isar’s next launch, for which the company is finalizing the launch vehicle, Metzler said the company will take initial measurements to assess the rocket’s first-stage reentry. Those readings are an initial step before flying dedicated reusability hardware. The company will take the measurements on the vehicle it is preparing for flight.

Metzler said Isar intends to begin flying purpose-built reusability hardware on upcoming flights within the next three or four missions. The plan to fly reusability-specific hardware follows initial reentry data collection on the upcoming launch.

When questioned about a possible 100 billion euro valuation for Isar Aerospace, Metzler said people massively underestimate space‘s potential and that the real figure is much higher. He dismissed the valuation question by suggesting the true potential of space is higher than most people imagine. Metzler made the comments at the SZ newspaper conference on Tuesday.

SpaceX leads the sector with a valuation of $1.9 trillion, or 1.7 trillion euros. The valuation appears in discussion of European efforts to secure affordable launch access independent of SpaceX.

Metzler put his own view this way: “Looking at what could happen in the next 18 years, I wouldn’t rule out us being further ahead than SpaceX.”

European officials are banking on rivalry between Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg to reduce satellite launch prices. Policymakers expect competition between the two companies to lower costs for satellite operators.

The anticipated price reductions aim to make space access affordable for telecommunications and defense while reducing reliance on SpaceX. European officials see affordable launch access as strategically important for telecommunications and defense sectors seeking independence from the American company.

An aviation notice released on 28 October indicates Isar Aerospace may attempt a third Spectrum launch from Norway’s Andøya Spaceport as early as 26 November. The notice was published by Avinor, the Norwegian air navigation services provider. It covers a three-month period from late November 2026 through mid-February 2027, though no specific date has been set by the company.

During the approved window, launch attempts can occur daily from 20:00 to 21:30 UTC from 26 November 2026 through 17 February 2027. The company has not set a public target date for the third Spectrum mission despite the approved window.

Spectrum’s second flight, which occurred on 5 September 2026, achieved the vehicle’s first successful mission. The success came after a March 2025 failure in which the rocket fell into the Norwegian Sea less than a minute after liftoff, visible from the launch pad.

Isar Aerospace said production of Spectrum vehicles three through seven was already underway following the September success.

At a post-flight briefing, Isar Aerospace Chief Executive Daniel Metzler said the third Spectrum vehicle was in final assembly and would undergo acceptance testing before shipment to Norway. Metzler discussed the vehicle’s status at a press conference following the September flight.

No full payload manifest has been publicly released by Isar Aerospace for the upcoming Spectrum mission. R-Space, an Austrian satellite company, confirmed in June that its AT-Astra spacecraft will fly on the third Spectrum launch, providing the first disclosed payload for the planned flight.

Technology demonstrations for Portugal’s Synopsis Planet and for Austrian firms ENPULSION and SunBooster will fly aboard the AT-Astra spacecraft. The spacecraft will host payloads from Portugal and Austria as part of the third mission.