Isar Aerospace's inaugural launch of the Spectrum rocket ended in failure after it lost control shortly after liftoff, despite CEO Daniel Metzler branding the event a success. Amid rising interest for European launch capabilities, this launch aimed to address challenges following EU-US uncertainties. The rocket's engines shut down shortly after takeoff, leading to its destruction upon water impact. The Flight Termination System operated properly, yet critics question the definitions of successful outcomes in contemporary commercial space operations, highlighting a trend of downplaying failures as part of a larger narrative of innovation.
"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."
The precise cause of the anomaly hasn't been confirmed, though the vehicle's Flight Termination System - the standard kill switch for when rockets go rogue - was triggered as designed.
Isar Aerospace's Spectrum, the first test launch of which lifted off from the Andøya Spaceport, had suffered multiple delays due to weather throughout the preceding week.
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