WASHINGTON — Isar Aerospace has won a launch contract from the Norwegian Space Agency as the company prepares for its first orbital launch attempt.
Munich-based Isar Aerospace announced March 12 it signed a contract to launch two satellites for the agency’s Arctic Ocean Surveillance (AOS) program in 2028. The launch of the Spectrum rocket to sun-synchronous orbit will take place from the company’s launch pad at Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway.
One satellite, called AOS-Demo, will be built by Norwegian engineering company Eidel to demonstrate maritime monitoring technologies. The other, AOS-Precursor, will be built by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace as the first operational satellite in a system to track maritime activities in the Arctic.
“For the first time, Norwegian industry is delivering satellites designed and built in Norway under a government contract from a Norwegian launch site,” Christian Hauglie-Hanssen, director general of the Norwegian Space Agency, said in a statement about the contract.
The contract announcement comes as Isar is preparing for its first Spectrum launch, also from Andøya. The company announced Feb. 21 that it had completed testing of the vehicle, including static-fire tests of its two stages, and was ready to launch pending a license to be issued by the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority.
That remains the case now. “It’s standing at the pad at the moment,” Stella Guillen, chief commercial officer of Isar Aerospace, said of Spectrum during a panel discussion at the Satellite 2025 conference March 11. “We’re ready any time, waiting for a license to go up.”
“Our team is in the starting blocks, and we are almost ready for the test flight,” Daniel Metzler, chief executive of Isar, said of its upcoming launch in a statement.
The Norwegian Space Agency award is the second launch contract for Isar in as many weeks. Japanese microgravity services startup ElevationSpace announced March 3 it signed a deal for a 2026 of its AOBA satellite, designed to test a recoverable platform for space-based experiments and manufacturing.
