Orbit from the Arctic.
On its second flight, Isar Aerospace put CubeSats into LEO from Andøya. Europe’s commercial launch industry finally crossed the line that SpaceX crossed in 2008 and China keeps crossing every week.
At 20:12 UTC on 5 September 2026, a thin white rocket left an island above the Arctic Circle. Local clocks at Andøya Space in northern Norway read 10:12 pm CEST. The bluish late-summer light was already fading. Ars Technica, Isar Aerospace's own press release, European Spaceflight, and the German Space Agency at DLR all stamp the same time. That matters. Launch journalism loves soft numbers. This one is hard.