The first flight of Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket lasted just 40 seconds
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/03/europes-first-private-launch-company-is-learning-to-embrace-failure/Open linkView original on sh.itjust.worksSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on sh.itjust.workshttps://arstechnica.com/space/2025/03/europes-first-private-launch-company-is-learning-to-embrace-failure/Open linkView original on sh.itjust.works
4 replies
The headline is a bit misleading, as if this is a failure or there was an expectation that the rocket would NOT crash. On the contrary. NO space programme in the world has ever managed to ensure that the first test rocket did not crash. The flight time of 18 seconds is also significantly longer than the first SpaceX rocket, for example. The spokesperson from the company "Isar Aerospace" therefore also - rightly - described the launch as a "great success".
Yeah, it lifted off and didn't destroy the pad. For a first launch, I'd say that's pretty good!
Edit:
Spectrum's first flight is actually pretty similar to the first Falcon 1 flight, and even exhibited a similar failure mode:
Agreed. They achieved some milestones. Filling, ignition, launch, clearing the pad. But Max Q, MECO, stage separation, anything related to the 2nd stage...
Baby steps... We didn't shoot for the moon on our first launch.