Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, inaugurated the spaceport at a ceremony Nov. 2. The spaceport is located at Nordmela on the Norwegian island of Andøya inside the Arctic Circle and is in the final stages towards operating capability, according to a Nov. 2 press statement.

Andoya Space says the spaceport will become the first operational orbital spaceport in Europe.

The development comes as Europe faces a bottleneck in launch capabilities, with delays to the Ariane 6 and grounding of the Vega C, and a need for strategic autonomy.

The fully constructed spaceport is planned to host several launch pads. German rocket developer Isar Aerospace has exclusive access to the first launch site, which has been built to Isar’s specifications. This infrastructure includes a launch pad, payload integration facilities and a mission control center.

The launch site will support Isar’s two-stage Spectrum launch vehicle, designed to deliver up to 700 kilograms to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) and up to 1,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit.

I hadn’t heard of Isar or Spectrum before. It will be interesting to see if they can carve out a section of the European launch market.