The uncrewed rocket carried five small satellites and an in-flight technology experiment from Andoeya Spaceport in Norway, according to Isar Aerospace.
“Launch capability is right now the biggest bottleneck in the entire industry,” Isar co-founder and CEO Daniel Metzler told reporters.
Metzler said the privately owned company remains well-funded and that an initial public offering “is not on the table”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hailed the launch in a statement, calling it “the beginning of a new era”.
Merz visited Isar’s launch site in March, underscoring Europe’s efforts to establish greater autonomy as the global order once championed by the United States is shifting under US President Donald Trump.
The launch was Isar’s second attempt after its first rocket plunged into the sea and exploded shortly after takeoff from the same site 18 months ago.
No one was injured in that incident.
Isar said it already has five more rockets in production and is focused on expanding operations to meet rising demand, with a long-term goal of conducting around 40 launches a year.
The company is also developing a second launch site in Nova Scotia in eastern Canada, which it said on Sunday could be ready for lift-offs in 2028.
Saturday’s launch was intended as “both the vehicle’s qualification mission and its first flight carrying payload,” the Bavarian company said.
“The fact that we can now launch satellites from Andoeya strengthens Norwegian and European security in the turbulent times we live in,” said Norway’s minister of industry and commerce, Cecilie Myrseth.
“Europe’s independent access to space just got a major boost,” EU Defence and Space Commissioner Andrius Kubilius wrote on social media platform X.
The Spectrum rocket is designed to serve the growing market for small and medium-sized payloads.
Global players in the satellite launch market include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which launches from the United States, and French ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and Safran that uses a spaceport in South America’s French Guiana.
Sweden, with its Esrange launch site, and Britain, with its SaxaVord Spaceport in the Scottish Shetland Islands, are also seeking to expand Europe’s autonomy in spaceflight.
Isar last week said it had secured about €200 million ($232 million) from the European Space Agency to help fund development of new rockets and expand its testing and launch infrastructure.