The head of Germany's Isar Aerospace voiced hope that the company could one day overtake Elon Musk's SpaceX to become the world's premier space launch company. Daniel Metzler, who founded the firm with two fellow students in 2018, pointed to a huge backlog of launch orders aided by European military clients.
Speaking at a conference organised by the SZ newspaper, Metzler noted that SpaceX was founded in 2002 and stated he would not rule out Isar being further ahead than SpaceX in the next 18 years. Isar achieved a milestone in September by becoming the first privately financed European company to get a rocket into orbit. Metzler highlighted that SpaceX needed four attempts to get into orbit compared to Isar's two.
Europe is betting that competition between Isar and other players like Rocket Factory Augsburg will reduce satellite launch prices, ensuring affordable access to space for telecommunications and defence. This independence is sought from entities including SpaceX, the sector leader valued at $1.9 trillion, which equals 1.7 trillion euros. Metzler said Isar was 15-times oversubscribed for 2028 launches as European governments increasingly prefer European providers for defence satellites over overseas firms.
The company noted a significant shift in demand, stating that about 18 months ago 85 percent of inquiries were commercial and 15 percent were military, but that ratio has since flipped. Metzler explained that there are 14 customers for every rocket the company has to disappoint. Isar is currently working on developing reusable rockets to boost capacity and lower launch costs, hoping to catch up with SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket.
As part of its reusability strategy, Isar will take initial measurements to assess the re-entry of the rocket's first stage during its next launch, for which the vehicle is currently being finalised. Over the next three or four flights, the company also plans to start flying hardware specifically designed for reusability. When asked if Isar could one day be valued at 100 billion euros, Metzler responded that people massively underestimate the potential of space and reckoned the actual figure is much higher.
Source: The Local. Read the original report ↗