1 December 2025 year Isar Aerospace announced, which will launch a mission called ΣYNDEO-3 in the fourth quarter 2026 year. The satellite is part of the European Union's Space Orbital Demonstration and Validation Program (In-Orbit Demonstration/In-Orbit Validation, IOD/IOV), which is intended for flight tests of new space technologies. As part of this mission, the spacecraft will carry 10 payloads from five European countries and the European Commission, however, the details of these loads have not been disclosed. The IOD/IOV program is implemented by the European Space Agency on behalf of the Commission (THIS), financing is carried out under the EU Horizon program 2020.
The satellite is being built by the European division of Redwire Space based on the Hammerhead platform, which originates from the company's work on ESA's PROBA series missions. The mass of the Hammerhead platform is 175 Kg, she is able to carry up to 120 kg of payload.
This easily fits into the capabilities of the Spectrum missile, which is designed for output to 1 tons to low Earth orbit. A representative of Isar said, that according to the terms of the contract, the possibility of placing additional payloads is provided, but declined to disclose financial details of the deal.
Isar Aerospace conducted one orbital launch attempt of the Spectrum rocket in March this year, however, she crashed seconds after takeoff. In September, the company reported, that the rocket lost orientation control due to insufficient consideration of bending modes during takeoff. At the time, Isar Aerospace stated, working on Spectrum's second launch, but she did not name the date. Since then, the company has not released any updates on the schedule for the second launch, which will take place from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway.
Source: https://spacenews.com