2023-06-20 18:00:09
In the Rocket Factory workshop in Augsburg, Germany, on June 16, 2021. LENNART PREISS / AFP
Alexandre Dalloneau assures that he is too focused on technique to think about the rest. “The launch of the rocket must go as smoothly as possible. We want to be the first. That’s my only concern.”he says by videoconference from the premises of the young company Isar Aerospace, in Ottobrunn, in the suburbs of Munich (Bavaria).
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The 44-year-old French engineer is, however, under what is undoubtedly the greatest pressure of his career: he is preparing to conduct, by the end of 2023, the initial test flight of the very first rocket manufactured by Isar. , from the Andoya site in Norway. Spectrum – its name – is a microlauncher, ie a mini-rocket designed to carry up to 1,000 kilograms to a low orbit. The launch of Mr. Dalloneau, who worked on Ariane, Soyuz and Vega flights before joining Isar in 2020, will be scrutinized throughout Europe.
Added to the technical challenge is the pressure of competition. On June 2, rival company Rocket Factory Augsburg (FRG), another fully private Bavarian start-up, announced that it had successfully passed an engine test on the small stage rocket it is developing.
“RFA is the first private company in Europe to achieve a single-stage hot combustion with a staged combustion engine for its entire duration”, welcomed the company, which wants, like Isar, to offer low-altitude delivery services with a high degree of flexibility. The first test flight is scheduled for the end of the year. The competing firm HyImpulse, located in Baden-Württemberg (south-west), is aiming for a launch in 2024.
“Countering aggressive international competition”
The stakes are considerable. If these tests work, Isar Aerospace and RFA would provide proof that, in Europe, private companies can carry out what was until now the preserve of States: access to space to deliver commercial satellites. In the United States, private players such as Blue Origin and especially SpaceX have long since taken their place outside Earth orbit. The pressure is all the stronger as the last flight of Ariane-5 is scheduled for Friday June 16 and its successor, Ariane-6, is not able to take over. Europe, which aspires to autonomy, therefore finds itself without access to space for an as yet indefinite period.
The breakdown does not contribute to appease the deleterious atmosphere which reigns between Paris and Berlin on the theme of space for a few years. France criticizes Germany for wanting to conduct its own space program, by developing microlaunchers which would compete with Ariane and Vega, strategic launchers, and disperse the European effort. To which Berlin replies that Germany does not subsidize any company, but is content to buy flights from private companies, only active in the small rocket segment. She argues that she is not committing infidelity to Ariane since she has not lowered her participation in the European Space Agency, which finances the famous launcher.
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