The inaugural flight was historic, despite a premature failure. The Spectrum rocket from the German startup Isar Aerospace crashed just seconds after its liftoff.
This marked the first orbital flight conducted from continental Europe, specifically from the Lofoten archipelago in northeastern Norway. In 2023, Virgin Orbit had attempted to launch a rocket from the continent, but used a Boeing 747 instead of a launch pad, resulting in a failure that led to the company's bankruptcy.
The test flight of Spectrum, a 28-meter tall two-stage rocket capable of carrying a one-ton payload to low Earth orbit and beyond, was launched from the Norwegian company Andoya Space's spaceport. The rocket quickly wobbled before flipping and falling back to Earth. Although Isar Aerospace did not expect to reach orbit on its first attempt, the flight duration was short due to an "incident," according to the Scandinavian company. Fortunately, there were no material or human damages. Nevertheless, this flight provided "a wealth of data for teams to assess and learn from," as explained by an Isar Aerospace employee in a live YouTube video.
