Successful trial launch of German start-up’s rocket

Koonibba (dpa)- For the first time in decades, a German company has launched a commercial rocket. Twelve metres long, the launch vehicle lifted off at around 7.10 am CET on Friday in Koonibba in Australia, as a company spokesperson announced. The SR75 rocket manufactured by the start-up HyImpulse is fuelled by paraffin (candle wax) and liquid oxygen. According to the firm’s co-founder Christian Schmierer, it is also capable of flying into space. This time, however, an altitude of only 60 kilometres was planned, thus not crossing the boundary to space. 

Schmierer says that HyImpulse, which is based near Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg, wants to use the rocket for more cost-effective transport of small satellites into space. The firm is also working on a second, larger SL1 launch vehicle to transport payloads of up to 600 kilograms into the Earth’s orbit. It will likewise be driven by a hybrid system of paraffin and liquid oxygen. The rockets are to transport satellites into space in roughly a year and a half’s time.