Germany's Isar Aerospace on Saturday became the first commercial space company from Europe to successfully deliver satellites into orbit, the company said.

The company's 28-metre-long Spectrum rocket blasted off from the Norwegian spaceport at Andøya at 10:12 pm (2012 GMT). It crossed the so-called Kármán line, which marks the notional boundary of space, at an altitude of around 100 kilometres above the Earth's surface, the company said.

The rocket was carrying a payload of five scientific satellites from several universities and a scientific experiment.

Chief executive and co-founder Daniel Metzler said it was a new chapter for European spaceflight.

"We achieved within a few years what had taken the European space industry decades before. Europe now has sovereign access to space," he said.

"We will now focus on rapidly scaling launch vehicle production, deliver on our order pipeline, and meet surging global demand."

European Space Agency (ESA) director general Josef Aschbacher said it was a historic launch.

"Spectrum quite literally rose to the challenge and delivered its payloads in low Earth orbit," Aschbacher said.

"An astounding achievement by German company Isar Aerospace, founded only eight years ago, and backed by the European Space Agency. This is yet another step towards a more diverse autonomous European launch service sector, and I am excited for what is still to come."

Isar Aerospace first launched the Spectrum rocket in March last year, but it crashed into the sea 30 seconds after take-off.

The second test flight had originally been planned for early this year, but launch preparations were halted in January, March and April.

The Bavarian space start-up intends to carry out further launches this year and construction of the third Spectrum rocket is already well advanced.

Once it reaches series production, the Spectrum is set to place civilian and military satellites into low Earth orbit, a few hundred kilometres above the Earth's surface.

Based near Munich, Isar Aerospace aims to produce 40 rockets per year.

It is already fully booked with orders worth several hundred million dollars through to 2028, even though the rocket is not yet ready for series production.

The German government, the EU and other European states all have a strategic interest in the success of the company, with a workforce of some 400 people.

So far, Isar Aerospace has raised more than half a billion euros in investment capital, most recently signing a €200-million ($232-million) contract with the ESA, part of an ESA programme designed to accelerate the development of European launch vehicles.

Europe is currently widely unable to launch satellites into space using its own technology. The vast majority of European satellites have been launched into space by SpaceX, though this is unpopular with European space companies.

Isar Aerospace said the US launched 198 rockets last year, while Europe launched just eight.

Some 60% of enquiries to Isar Aerospace come from the military sector, Metzler said earlier this year.

However, even when the Bavarian Spectrum rocket is production-ready, it will still not be able to reach greater altitudes in space.

This is a project in focus at the Franco-German ArianeGroup, which seeks to launch a total of seven to eight Ariane 6 rockets this year, in a programme beset by years of delays.

Unlike the Spectrum, the Ariane is a large launch vehicle capable of carrying much heavier payloads, even into geostationary orbits some 36,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

There have been four Ariane launches this year, according to European Spaceflight.