Europe has witnessed the First test launch of a rocket for satellites from its soil, Sunday 30 March 2025. The event took place onisland of andøyain the north of the Norwaywith the rocket Spectrumthe first European private orbital carrier, 28 meters high and 50 tons heavy, capable of bringing 700-1000 kg of payload into orbit. The carrier is produced by Isar Aerospacea German company born in 2018 in Munich and also financed by the European Space Agency (ESA). The rocket is part of an ambitious European project, called New Spacewhose goal is to offer Europe a competitive alternative in the space launches market by creating launchers for the transport of small and medium satellites in low terrestrial orbit.
The short trial flight of the rocket, filmed on video, showed the take -off from the Spaziaport of Andøya, one limited flight phasefollowed by control lossfall into the sea e explosion at a safe distance. The launch ended with theExplosion of the rocket at sea about 30 seconds after take -off. Many newspapers have described the test as a “failure”, but it is an improper definition in the light of the fact that it was a test flight regarding what were the minimum objectives of the mission.
Define “success“or”failure“In complex companies such as space missions is an excessive simplification. We must distinguish between desired objectives And minimum objectives: The first are those in the best possible scenario, while the latter are the ones who once obtained allow you to speak of (partial) success. In this case, in the best possible scenario the rocket would have entered the low terrestrial orbit, while the minimum goal was take off controlled and have one Stable initial flight phase. From subsequent tests, of course, you will gradually expect more.
The philosophy of Isar Aerospace is in fact summarized by their tweet “Launch, Learn, Repeat»(” Lancia, learn, repeat “) and therefore is definitely more similar to that of other private companies – such as Spacex of Elon Musk – compared to the one that have accustomed us to public space agencies over the decades, such as NASA.
As confirmed by Daniel MetzlerCEO of Isar Aerospace, the test ended with positive results in line with the company’s expectations and with their minimum objectives:
The launch had a regular take -off, a 30 -second flight phase and the validation of the flight conclusion system.
Like any flight of trialthis launch was essentially an opportunity for collect data precious, learn and perfect every aspect. Isar Aerospace with this test has done remarkable progressproviding a large amount of information to be analyzed.
Josef AschbacherGeneral Manager of ASA spoke as follows the mission:
I congratulate the teams for the work done and I am sure that we will soon see Spectrum again at the launch, ready for a second test.
Reaching the low orbit, essential for the positioning of the satellites, represents the ultimate goal of the Spectrum project and its future tests.
