Europe’s private space race just got a jolt from a German company. Munich-based Isar Aerospace says its Spectrum rocket reached orbit for the first time Saturday and deployed payloads on only its second test flight, CNBC reports. It was the first commercial rocket to reach orbit from Europe, a huge step for the continent’s commercial launch sector, reports the Guardian. The uncrewed rocket blasted off from a spaceport on an island in northern Norway. The company is planning to develop a second launch site in Nova Scotia in eastern Canada.

Stella Guillen, the company’s chief commercial officer, tells CNBC demand for launch slots is “so big” that the startup is now racing to scale up production and frequency, with a deal pipeline it values at more than $11 billion. The space industry, she says, is “desperate” for more launch capacity. Spectrum’s first test flight was in March last year, when it spun out of control in less than 30 seconds and crashed near the launchpad, Ars Technica reports.

Backed by investors including Porsche and the NATO Innovation Fund, Isar raised $310 million in June to grow its global launch network. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hailed the mission as “the beginning of a new era,” while EU defense and space commissioner Andrius Kubilius said Europe’s “independent access to space just got a major boost.”

• “Especially early on, back in 2018, when, frankly, there was no ‘New Space’ industry, especially on this side of the Atlantic, people said it will never work,” CEO Daniel Metzler, who founded Isar in 2018 with two Technical University of Munich classmates, told reporters on Sunday. “People will continue to always say this will not work, and that will not work, until we just prove them wrong. Giving up is not in our DNA.”