First Orbital Rocket Launched From European Soil Explodes Seconds After Liftoff

The European market’s first attempt at playing catch-up with the satellite launch industry ended in a gigantic explosion off the Norwegian coast, where a German-made rocket crashed and burned. German startup Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from the Andøya spaceport on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. ET for its first test flight. The rocket successfully lifted off from its launchpad and spent around 30 seconds in the air before it started falling back down toward the Arctic Ocean, creating a massive fireball over the water. The company later revealed that the flight was terminated shortly after liftoff, and the launch vehicle fell into the sea in a controlled manner. “Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success,”Daniel Metzler, CEO and co-founder of Isar Aerospace, said in an emailed statement. “We had a clean liftoff, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our Flight Termination System. We demonstrated that we can not only design and build but als ... Read full article.