On the morning of April 20, 2023, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a fully integrated Starship launch vehicle for the first time - a long-awaited and much-anticipated milestone in the rocket's development program. It reached an altitude of almost 40 kilometers, the point of stage separation where the upper stage failed to detach from the booster, resulting in an uncontrolled tumble and a spectacular mid-air explosion. Although the rocket did not reach its destination, the flight provided SpaceX with valuable information that can be used for further development.

In Europe, meanwhile, a number of companies are working to compete with the American market leaders and to develop new technologies in order to benefit from the space market of the future. Against this background, we would like to address current trends in the aerospace industry in this issue of the SektorReport, and in particular to highlight the successful round of financing by Isar Aerospace. In addition, we have defined a new peer group for this and future reports, which describes the industrials sector more comprehensively and thus provides more qualitative figures.

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