Isar Aerospace reaches orbit from continental Europe
The 28 m, two-stage Spectrum carried six CubeSats and an experiment to test technologies in orbit.
Reusable rockets, Earth observation, constellations: orbit is becoming infrastructure.
Orbit is becoming infrastructure: reusable launchers driving down the cost per kilogram, constellations that connect and observe, Earth observation feeding agriculture, weather forecasting and climate monitoring. The section follows flights, commissionings and order books — SpaceX of course, but also the Chinese, Indian, Japanese and European launchers the general press skims over.
The angle stays the journal’s: what changes concretely, quantified and sourced. A launch is not a feat but a price per kilogram; a constellation is not a project but a number of active satellites and a service rendered. We distinguish the test flight from the commercial cadence, and the announcement from the signed contract.
The 28 m, two-stage Spectrum carried six CubeSats and an experiment to test technologies in orbit.
The four 17-kilogram spacecraft launched on Rocket Lab’s Electron in December 2025.
Deep Blue Aerospace’s Thunder-RS reached 1,297.5 kilonewtons during its first 100-second steady-state test.