An Austrian Milestone in Space: Vienna-Based Startup Tumbleweed Launches Its First Commercial Satellite into Orbit

A new era has dawned for the Austrian space industry. Aboard a Falcon 9 rocket operated by the private space company SpaceX, the “Oasis Alpha” satellite successfully launched into space from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. What makes this special is that it is the first commercial satellite from an Austrian company ever to reach Earth’s orbit. The flying laboratory was developed by the Vienna-based space startup Tumbleweed, which has set itself the goal of radically simplifying access to space—making it as straightforward as sending a package.