While Earth observation satellites were as big as buses a while ago, the same technology can now be found in a few shoe boxes. Big ships like the Ariane 5, which can heave more than 17 tons into orbit, are hardly needed anymore. Instead, “microlauncher”, “nanorockets” or simply “small rockets” are emerging around the world, as the magazine Technology Review in its current issue 1 / 2021 reported (can now be ordered at the kiosk or online). What they all have in common is that they should bring between a few dozen kilograms and a good tonne of payload into space.

The European Space Agency Esa 2019 – on Germany’s initiative – launched its own funding program for this. A total of around 30 million euros are to receive up to three companies for the development and the first launch of a small rocket. The finalists of this so-called microlauncher competition have already been determined. Unsurprisingly, it is precisely those three start-ups that the program was tailored to from the start: Isar Aerospace from Ottobrunn near Munich, HyImpulse from Neuenstadt am Kocher in Württemberg and the Rocket Factory Augsburg.

Lack of space A launch pad could also be in Germany. Just where? For months, the Federation of German Industries (BDI) has been creating the mood for a national nanorocket launch site – preferably in the middle of the North Sea. Since rockets can fall back to earth if they have a problem with launch, they need a lot of free space all around; on land, but also on the German coasts, it will be tight. Talks are being held on this, says Thomas Jarzombek, aerospace coordinator for the federal government. The process is “not yet finished”. Before the necessary legal framework conditions are created, a need for the start of microlaunchers in Germany must first be determined. Jarzombek also emphasizes that the federal government will not build such a launch pad itself: “That has to be done by a commercial operator who should then be ready to take the risk.”

This article is from issue 1 / 2021 of the Technology Review. The booklet is from 17. 12. 2020 available in stores and directly in the heise shop. Highlights from the magazine:

The three German rocket builders have other plans anyway – and they seem much more practicable than a floating platform in the midst of offshore wind turbines and shipping lines: Isar Aerospace relies on Kourou in French Guiana, where the European Ariane rockets are also launched. The Rocket Factory Augsburg also looks to South America, but alternatively wants to start in Andøya, on the west coast of Norway. And HyImpulse relies on Kiruna: From the Swedish launch site north of the Arctic Circle, suborbital research rockets have been launching for decades – only bothered by a few herds of reindeer.

(grh)