If you ask most satellite companies aside from SpaceX, they will tell you the world doesn't have enough capacity for launching payloads into orbit. This is despite the blistering launch cadence we've seen around the world in recent years, led by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Customers in any sector will, of course, usually welcome competition. Theoretically, competition will lead to lower prices and allow the best to rise to the top. It seems like the customers buying launch services were right. SpaceX is dialing back its Falcon 9 launch program, and there is no certainty about when SpaceX's reusable next-generation super-heavy-lift rocket, Starship, will carry anything to orbit besides the company's own Starlink satellites.
So it's no surprise satellite operators are cheering the success of a new launch provider. This was especially the case a few days ago, when Germany's Isar Aerospace reached orbit for the first time with its Spectrum rocket. The launcher delivered a batch of CubeSats to low-Earth orbit from a spaceport in northern Norway, and Isar tasted success after its first test flight ended in failure last year.
The history of European space exploration is a long and distinguished one, with many decades and whole families of launch vehicles. It might therefore come as a surprise that despite all this, it’s taken until 2026 for a European rocket to be launched into orbit from European soil rather than from somewhere close to the Equator. The German company Isar Aerospace launched one of their Spectrum rockets from Andøya Space in Norway and deployed its CubeSat payloads to orbit.
The five satellites were a selection of projects from the German space agency’s Microlauncher Competition, which offers the chance of a launch to start-ups and educational institutions. The press release doesn’t name them, but Wikipedia has the following list: TriSat-S (University of Maribor and SkyLabs); FramSat-1 (NTNU SpaceTeam); Sat1 (TU Wien Space Team); CyBEEsat (TU Berlin); Platform 6 (EnduroSat) and Let It Go (experiment, Dcubed).[46].
Interestingly, the company is also working on a space launch facility in Nova Scotia, Canada, to gain access to lower inclination orbits and to provide Canadians with their own launch capability. More is evidently yet to come.
Isar Aerospace, founded in 2018 by three students at a German university, successfully launched a privately developed rocket into low-Earth orbit Saturday from a Norwegian spaceport inside the Arctic Circle.
The two-stage rocket, named Spectrum, became the first fully commercial launch vehicle in Europe to reach orbit. With Saturday's success, Isar is the clear leader among a pack of several European launch startups vying to inject some competition into Europe's stagnant launch market.
Isar's 92-foot-tall (28-meter) Spectrum rocket lifted off at 4:12 pm EST (20:12 UTC) Saturday from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway, where it was 10:12 pm local time and the final bluish hues of daylight faded from the late summer sky. Seven minutes later, the rocket was in orbit.
An artist’s conception shows Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander on the moon’s surface during the lunar night, with Zeno Power Systems’ radioisotope heater unit highlighted with a blue glow on the left side of the lander’s top deck. (Firefly Aerospace Illustration)
A nuclear-powered heater built by Zeno Power Systems is slated to fly to the moon aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander for a demonstration mission that could take place as early as 2028.
Zeno’s Seattle engineering hub played a leading role in developing the radioisotope heater unit, which will be powered by americium-241, a radioactive isotope typically recovered from recycled nuclear material.
The unit will provide 5 watts of thermal energy — enough to sustain the payload during the lunar night, which lasts 14 Earth days. Firefly’s first solar-powered Blue Ghost lander, which touched down on the moon in March 2025, operated successfully through the lunar day but gave up the ghost shortly after sunset.
“Our first Blue Ghost mission gave us firsthand insight into the moon’s extreme thermal environment, where we measured temperatures ranging from more than 230 degrees F during the lunar day to below -275 degrees F at night,” Ray Allensworth, Firefly’s vice president of spacecraft, said today in a news release. “Now we’re looking forward to advancing technologies that can extend missions beyond sunset and support long-duration surface operations required for NASA’s Moon Base initiative and the growing lunar economy.”
This illustration provides a closeup view of Zeno’s radioactive heater unit on a Blue Ghost lander. (Firefly Aerospace Illustration)
The lander will rely on solar power to run NASA-funded science payloads on the moon’s near side during the lunar day. When night falls, Zeno’s payload will go into operation and transmit data back to Earth.
“Hardware capable of surviving the extreme cold of the lunar night will be essential to enabling sustained operations on the moon,” said Tyler Bernstein, CEO and co-founder of Zeno Power. “NASA’s Moon Base program has identified the need for technologies such as radioisotope power systems to support future lunar exploration, and Zeno is proud to answer that call to demonstrate this capability aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission.”
Beyond radioisotope heater units, Zeno is developing radioisotope power generators to supply electricity for missions on the moon and in extreme environments on Earth. “As demand for long-duration lunar infrastructure grows, we are building the production capacity to support future commercial and government missions,” Bernstein said.
“Zeno has raised $105 million to date in private investment and has 95 employees,” Kelsey Bates, the company’s communications manager, told GeekWire in an email. The Seattle hub accounts for the largest proportion of those employees.
Heart Aerospace’s enormous X1 demonstrator has completed its first flight, offering an early glimpse at what battery-powered regional air travel could eventually look like.
Wisk completed the first flight of its Generation 6 autonomous, all-electric eVTOL last year. Photo via Wisk
Archer Aviation is acquiring three Boeing subsidiaries focused on autonomous aircraft, airspace management and unmanned systems, a deal that will significantly expand the electric aircraft maker’s business into defense and add more than $200 million in annual revenue.
The companies announced the deal Monday, saying Archer will acquire Wisk Aero, SkyGrid and Insitu. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory and other closing conditions.
The deal brings together Archer’s work on electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, unmanned aircraft and artificial intelligence with Boeing’s investments in autonomous flight and defense technologies.
The transaction represents a major expansion by Archer beyond its core effort to develop electric air taxis. The company said the three Boeing businesses operate across 35 countries and collectively have nearly two million flight hours.
Bingen, Wash.-based Insitu, which develops and manufactures uncrewed aircraft systems for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, is the largest piece of the acquisition from a defense perspective. The profitable unit has manufactured and deployed more than 3,500 unmanned aircraft and supports military customers in 35 countries, according to the companies. Founded in 1994, Insitu was acquired by Boeing in 2008 for about $400 million.
Insitu’s portfolio includes small unmanned aircraft systems, vertical-takeoff-and-landing capabilities and software designed to support military intelligence and surveillance operations. It has offices in the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates.
With over 1.6 million combat flight hours, Insitu’s ScanEagle is used in defense. Photo via Insitu
Mountain View, Calif.-based Wisk was formed in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk Corp. and has since developed autonomous electric aircraft. The company — which raised $450 million from Boeing in 2022 — has designed, built and flown six generations of its eVTOL air taxi systems and conducted more than 1,700 flight tests.
Austin, Texas-based SkyGrid provides software for managing increasingly automated airspace, including systems designed to coordinate aircraft and integrate autonomous vehicles into the broader aviation system.
Archer said it plans to combine those capabilities with its own artificial intelligence platform, known as ZEE, which the company describes as a foundation model for aerospace and defense applications.
“This is a watershed moment for Archer and the future of physical AI in aerospace and defense,” Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein said in a statement. “This is the next big step forward in becoming a diversified platform, rapidly growing our revenue base and bringing scale to our business.”
The transaction also creates a new strategic relationship between Archer and Boeing.
As part of the deal, Boeing will take a stake in Archer and enter into a collaboration and technology-sharing agreement with the company. Boeing will receive class A shares in Archer worth approximately 19.75%. After the transaction closes, Boeing’s shares will amount to a roughly 16.5% ownership stake in Archer, according to The New York Times.
It will also retain access to Wisk’s core autonomous flight technology for use in its current and future commercial and defense aircraft.
“This transaction is a win-win for Boeing and Archer,” Brian Yutko, Boeing’s vice president of Commercial Airplanes Product Development, said in a statement. “It allows Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu to accelerate capability development and time to market while ensuring Boeing capitalizes on its investments in these technologies over the past two decades through continued development in our core businesses.”
For Boeing, the transaction provides a way to retain exposure to the technologies while shifting the three businesses into Archer, where they can be combined with its aircraft and AI efforts.
Archer, based in Silicon Valley, is developing its Midnight electric air taxi which it touts as a “new way to move through cities.” Monday’s deals also increasingly expand Archer’s focus to defense applications and other aircraft technologies.
Shares of Archer soared in Monday trading, up more than 7 percent.
Washington Youth Aerospace, the winners of the International Rocketry Challenge, from left in black shirts, Mikhail Antipin, Antoine Vigneron, Anay Mediwala, Nikhil Sirivara, Daniel Tadesse and Bao-ky Tran, pose with European Space Agency astronauts Meganne Christian, left, and John McFall at the Farnborough International Airshow south of London. (Photo courtesy of Sudheer Sirivara)
A team of Bellevue, Wash., high schoolers soared above teams from France, Japan, the UK, and Ukraine to win the International Rocketry Challenge in England over the weekend.
Washington Youth Aerospace, a team made up of six ninth graders from Bellevue’s Interlake High School, represented the United States in the competition at the Farnborough International Airshow. Team members include Daniel Tadesse, Bao-Ky Tran, Mikhail Antipin, Antoine Vigneron, Nikhil Sirivara, and Anay Mediwala.
With a target altitude of 750 feet, the team launched its rocket, carrying a raw egg payload, to an altitude of 765 feet with a flight time of 38.16 seconds.
The rocket launch counts for 60% of a team’s score and a presentation for judges counts for 40%. The team ranked first in both categories.
“Our success in the competition is extremely special given the work we have been putting in from middle school,” team member Nikhil Sirivara told GeekWire. “We could not have done this without the mentors and friends who helped us along the way and this win has inspired us to aim even higher going forward.”
Washington Youth Aerospace finished second in May at the 2026 National Finals of the American Rocketry Challenge, overcoming a last-minute scramble to replace a rocket motor that was lost in the mail. The team stepped in to represent the U.S. in the international event when the national finals winner from California had a scheduling conflict.
Students participating in the International Rocketry Challenge at the Farnborough Airshow in England pose with crew members and others in front of a Chinook helicopter. (Photo courtesy of Sudheer Sirivara)
Sudheer Sirivara, a parent advisor and chaperone, said the students got a chance to interact with the teams from other countries and also had a cultural exchange program where each group presented something unique about their hometown.
They also explored interesting aircraft, including Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, and C-130 and F-35 airplanes. The team had a chance to see London before returning to the Pacific Northwest on Sunday.
“This remarkable achievement reflects months of dedication, innovation, teamwork, and perseverance,” the American Rocketry Challenge said in a LinkedIn post. “From designing and testing their rocket to competing on the global stage, these students demonstrated the technical skill and determination that define the next generation of aerospace leaders.”
The American Rocketry Challenge is the flagship STEM initiative from the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) trade group, and is supported by industry partners as a way of strengthening the workforce pipeline of engineers and scientists.
Washington Youth Aerospace is looking forward to participating in the NASA Student Launch Initiative (SLI) next, as well as next year’s rocket challenge.
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