First European orbital rocket launch fails, crashes into Norwegian ocean
March 30 (UPI) -- The first orbital rocket launched from Europe crashed less than a minute after it was launched Sunday, but operators still considered the mission a success.
The German startup Isar launched the Spectrum rocket from Andøya spaceport in the Norwegian Arctic at 6:30 a.m. EDT in what the company called a test mission, but it began smoking and crashed back to Earth shortly after.
"This allowed the company to gather a substantial amount of flight data and experience to apply on future missions," Isar said in a statement. "After the flight was terminated at T+30 seconds, the launch vehicle fell into the sea in a controlled manner."
It was the first attempt to launch a rocket from the European mainland and an effort to jump start the continent's move to join the burgeoning space race. Sweden and Britain have said they intend to enter the market for commercial spaceflight.
Orbital rockets are typically used to transport satellites and other cargo into space and Europe has said it intends to become a center for such flights.
Video of the uncrewed mission shows the rocket launching successfully amid Norway's jagged snow-covered mountains along the coast before it stopped accelerating, turned completely around, plummeted into the ocean and exploded. Officials, however, said the mission proved useful for the information gained.
"Success to get off the pad, and lots of data already obtained. I am sure @isaraerospace will learn a lot. Rocket launch is hard. Never give up, move forward with even more energy!" European Space Agency's Director General, Josef Aschbacher posted on X.
Severe Arctic weather had postponed the launch for more than a week. The mission was designed to collect data on the company's launch vehicle and was the first test of its integrated systems.
The company said the Spectrum activated its rocket termination system about 30 seconds into the flight, which caused the craft to turn end for end, 180 degrees, and fall into a planned "safe zone" in the water.
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One of the winning teams of last year's Piolet d'Or, American climbers Matt Cornell, Jackson Marvell, and Alan Rousseau, spent seven days charting a new route up the steep north face of Jannu in Nepal. To pack lightly, they shared a single sleeping bag. 'Alpinism without the factor of the unknown is only the plain physical activity,' says Slovenian climbing legend Marko Prezelj, four-time winner of Piolet d'Or. 'If somebody prepares the mountain for you by putting in fixed lines and you climb together with 500 people, there is nothing unknown.' The Everest massif from Camp I on Pumori. Photograph by Cory Richards, Nat Geo Image Collection Famous American alpinist Steve House, best known for his bold 'alpine style' first ascent on the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat in 2005, sees alpinism as a process of stripping away excesses to get closer to the experience. 'There is nothing inherently wrong with the ascents done with supplemental oxygen and xenon, but we need to understand these climbs as tourism, not alpinism,' says House. And Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, the first Nepali to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen and founder of the Nepal-based guiding company Imagine Nepal, says there should be a limit to what tour companies offer. He thinks that the traditional way of doing proper acclimatisation is more valuable. 'I would always suggest to clients to do at least one rotation on the mountain up to Camp 2, before the summit push, so they can understand their body at high altitude. We also don't take clients without previous experience,' he says. But even if assisted climbs and medical aids become more common, Alpenglow Expeditions' Ballinger thinks there will always be an interest in unassisted alpine climbing. 'There are endless new route opportunities for alpinism in the Himalaya. And I don't think the fact that we have commercial guiding on a handful of routes on the world's most popular mountains gets in the way of the cutting-edge side of the sport,' says Ballinger. Peter Hackett, the high-altitude researcher, is less optimistic. 'The improved access, safety, and success on Everest have led to a new 'generation' of high-altitude tourists with high ambition but little climbing experience, and more money than time,' he says. 'It's all about— how I can bag this summit and miss as little work as possible.'
