The first orbital rocket launched from continental Europe crashed into the sea and exploded after a flight lasting only a few seconds, near the Andøya Space Center in the Arctic. The rocket is 28 meters tall, has a diameter of 2 meters, and weighs 50 tons. It can carry a payload ranging from 700 to 1,000 kilograms.

Shortly after liftoff, the space vehicle began to oscillate, flipped over, and then fell back down. According to the German aerospace startup Isar Aerospace, this is not a failure: the goal of the test flight was to gather as much data and experience as possible. It was practically ruled out that the rocket could reach Earth’s orbit.

The CEO and co-founder of Isar Aerospace, Daniel Metzler, stated: “Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving great success. We had a clean liftoff, 30 seconds of flight, and even managed to test our Flight Termination System,” he said. At 12:30 PM, Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum successfully lifted off from the Andøya spaceport in Norway. The launch vehicle was terminated after about 30 seconds of flight and fell directly into the sea. Marie-Christine von Hahn, general director of the German Aerospace Industry Association, described the mission as a pioneering step for German space travel.

“This test of a very complex rocket produced in Germany has provided an enormous amount of data that will allow us to keep moving forward,” she said. To be competitive and independent, significant budgets are required for space travel, she added.

“In particular, this means 500 million euros for the national space program and 6 billion euros for the European Space Agency (ESA).” Isar Aerospace is already planning the launch of the next two Spectrum rockets, 2 and 3. Today’s launch was the first commercial orbital launch conducted from European soil.