Elon Musk is not the only one losing rockets these days. Yesterday the German firm Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from a spaceport in northern Norway, but the mission ended in less than a minute.
Pointing out that Isar Aerospace is the first European commercial space company to launch an orbital rocket from Continental Europe, a company press release also cited the company’s CEO and co-founder Daniel Metzler, who stated:
Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success. 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 also launch rockets. I could not be prouder of our entire team for working so hard over the past seven years to reach this important milestone. Today, we laid the foundation to cater to the rising global demand for flexible satellite launch services. Now it’s time to analyze all data, learn, iterate and be back on the launch pad as soon as possible.
Like the U.S., Europe has a number of rocket start-ups that should eventually offer alternatives for future European space missions and commercial businesses. In this vein, the same press release had a hopeful message:
As a company with European roots, we are proud to have shown that Europe has an enduring capacity for bold thinking and grand achievements. We have all resources to create globally competitive technology leaders. With our services, we will be able to serve customers from around the world to bring their satellites into space and to help Europe solve a major blind spot in its security architecture: access to space.
The company is already making more rockets, allowing it build upon what was learned from this test flight.
Our Awesome Universe 