Welcome back. The main thing happening today is a German startup making European space history. Live from 12–3 BST. Here's your Order of Play.
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY
Europe has its first private rocket in orbit.
On Saturday night, Munich-based startup Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from northern Norway, reaching orbit and deploying five small satellites. It's the first time a commercial company has managed it from continental European soil. Not bad for a second attempt, the first, 18 months ago, lasted all of 30 seconds before crashing into the sea. As founder Daniel Metzler pointed out, even SpaceX took four goes to get there.
Europe managed just seven orbital launches last year, all of them from French Guiana in South America, against roughly 180 from the US and 90 from China. For a continent trying to reduce its reliance on US infrastructure, with Ukraine and an unpredictable Washington concentrating minds, being stuck in the queue for someone else's rockets was never going to cut it.
The company’s launch capacity is booked out to the end of 2028, and CEO Daniel Metzler says defence-related orders have jumped from around 15% of the total a year ago to about 60% now. "There's hardware all over the world that is literally stuck on Earth right now," Metzler said, sizing up the backlog at tens of billions of euros. "Satellite companies, governments, everybody is on the waiting list of just a few entities. I think that will change now."
Isar is building a factory near Munich to churn out 40 rockets a year, and a second launch site is under construction in Canada. The company recently secured a €200 million contract from the European Space Agency and is valued at about €2 billion. For years, Europe has watched SpaceX with both admiration and envy. It’s still unclear if Isar can catch up, but Europe is finally back in the game.
We're getting into all of it on today's show at 12 BST.
FRIDAY’S MOMENT
Luis Garicano, executive director of the newly launched Rhine Group, joined the boys on Friday’s show.
He argued that Europe is more focused on protecting what it already has than on changing direction quickly, especially compared with the way US firms operate. "If Meta decides the metaverse is the future and then decides, 'Oh, this was a completely stupid idea, the future is AI,' it changes everything. It hires lots of engineers, it moves forward, and in a few weeks it has pivoted." Europe's champions don't have that freedom.
"We need to make our economy much more dynamic without losing the good things that Europe does have."
Watch the full clip below.
FRIDAY’S BANGER OF THE DAY
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