Isar Aerospace announced on Sunday that a new launch attempt of the Spectrum rocket was to take place on Monday evening. Now the launch has been postponed indefinitely.

Twice earlier this year Isar has had to abort due to bad weather. A third time there was a possible leak. In March a fishing boat was inside the safety zone.

Skipper Olafur Einarsson then rejected that it was sabotage, but at the same time pointed out that the area is the fishermen’s workplace.

Monday’s launch was planned right in the middle of halibut fishing and the fishermen in the area are not pleased. Norges Fiskarlag has protested against the legal authority the police use to close off the sea area.

Document revealed recently that Isar Aerospace and Andøya Spaceport use the communications platform MarTRX from Frequentis AG, which has a Chinese employee with links to the espionage case on Andøya. Frequentis employed in 2023 a woman who a year earlier had been employed by Wei «William» Qiu, one of the three individuals charged by the PST in the espionage case.

One of the hypotheses mentioned in the case is that the Spectrum rocket was the main target of the Chinese intelligence operation.

Frequentis broke several weeks of silence yesterday with a brief statement:

– We are in contact with our customers and have informed the relevant authorities. We are reviewing the factual basis of the case, with the aim of analysing it.

The female Frequentis employee has a background from Huawei and was educated at a Chinese university with very close ties to the Chinese military. Andøya Space AS has previously declined to comment on what measures, if any, have been implemented, and refers to the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) for questions.

About an hour before the launch window was opened on Monday evening, the German space company reported technical problems.

– We are still detecting abnormal behaviour in the vehicle’s fluid systems, wrote Isar Aerospace on its own website.

The weather conditions were optimal, according to Andøya Spaceport. Somewhat later in the evening Isar reported that there would be no launch on Tuesday either.

Andøya Spaceport in Børvågen is as of today the only operational launch site for space rockets in Europe. The agreement is for 30 launches per year, but Andøya Space AS has indicated a need for scaling up.

During the launch of the Spectrum 2 rocket the police establish a prohibited zone at sea, marked in red on the map. There is also a prohibited zone for the public on land. (Map: The Police)