Winners: Isar Aerospace
From communication networks to autonomous driving or digital agriculture: for dozens of new technologies, satellites are needed for data communications. To make this possible, providers want to fire entire swarms of satellites into space. They will be relatively small and will move in low orbits. But existing rockets used for satellite launches are designed for much larger payloads. Especially in Europe, the launch resources for the new generation are scarce and expensive.
Isar Aerospace has developed a launch vehicle tailored to small and midsized satellites that will facilitate efficient transport. The start-up not only produces the technology. It will also organize the launches for customers.
The founders Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann and Markus Brandl studied aerospace at TUM and worked on rocket engines in the student research group WARR. After starting their company in 2018, they built their first prototypes in the MakerSpace high-tech workshop. At UnternehmerTUM they also received support in the XPRENEURS incubator. Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners invested in the start-up along with various other investors in several funding rounds. Isar Aerospace now has around 350 employees in Ottobrunn near the TUM Department of Aerospace and Geodesy. The start-up is planning to launch its first rocket before the end of this year.
