Successful test launch for orbital rocket from Norwegian island

A private European aerospace start-up has successfully launched the first test flight of its orbital launch vehicle from Norway.

Isar Aerospace, which is headquartered in Munich, said it launched its Spectrum rocket from the island of Andoya on Sunday.

The 92-ft Spectrum is a two-stage launch vehicle specifically designed to put small and medium satellites into orbit.

The rocket lifted off from the pad at 12.30pm local time and flew for about 30 seconds before the flight was terminated, Isar said. The rocket then fell into the sea.

“Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success,” Daniel Metzler, Isar’s chief executive and co-founder, said.

“We had a clean lift-off, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our flight termination system.”

The launch was subject to various factors, including weather and safety, and Sunday’s lift-off followed a week of poor conditions, including a scrubbed launch on Monday due to unfavourable winds and on Saturday for weather restrictions.

The company had largely ruled out the possibility of the rocket reaching orbit on its first complete flight, saying that it would consider a 30-second flight a success.

Isar Aerospace aims to collect as much data and experience as possible on the first integrated test of all the systems on its in-house-developed launch vehicle.

Isar Aerospace is separate from the European Space Agency (ESA), which is funded by its 23 member states.

ESA has been launching rockets and satellites into orbit for years, but mainly from French Guiana — an overseas department of France in South America — and from Cape Canaveral in Florida.