On Sunday, a different type of space adventure began and ended in seconds at a Norwegian spaceport. The rocket, designed by the German firm Isar Aerospace, took off but quickly met its demise by crashing into the sea.

Isar Aerospace, with its home base in Ottobrunn, near Munich, still celebrated the rocket’s flight as triumphant, claiming it was the first commercial space company to successfully launch an orbital rocket from European soil.

The Spectrum rocket made its debut in a thirty-second run before plummeting into the icy Norwegian Sea, its mission to gather as much information as feasible.

These orbital launch vehicles are rocket-powered and utilized to transport items like satellites from Earth into its orbit or to other planets.

Norwegian Lift-Off

The launch happened at 12:30 p.m. (1030 GMT/UTC) from Norway’s Andoya Spaceport, according to Isar Aerospace, marking the successful departure of the launch vehicle from the pad.

Isar Aerospace stated that the rocket was “terminated at T+30 seconds and fell directly into the sea in a controlled manner.”

“Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success,” said Daniel Metzler, CEO and Co-founder of Isar Aerospace, in a statement on the company website.

“We have shown that we can design, build, and launch rockets,” Metzler said, adding that the groundwork for meeting the increasing global need for flexible satellite launch services has been laid.

The Spectrum launch vehicle measures 28 meters in length, with a diameter of 2 meters, and has the capacity to launch payloads of 700 to 1,000 kilograms into space, depending on the orbit.

Isar Aerospace, established in 2018, aims to be Europe’s answer to SpaceX and Blue Origin, founded by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Isar Aerospace: Germany’s answer to Space X?

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Europe’s Space Endeavors

Europe still has a ways to go when it comes to space exploration, trailing behind the achievements of the US, China, and India.

According to the German news agency dpa, Marie-Christine von Hahn, managing director of the German Aerospace Industries Association, hailed the launch as a pivotal moment for German space travel.

“This test of a highly complex rocket built in Germany has provided us with a massive amount of data that will facilitate further progress,” she stated.

Von Hahn advocated for more financial backing for the European space industry to maintain competitiveness and independence, and she underscored the necessity for alternatives to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network.

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar