Comment Yet another rocket exploded over the weekend and – you guessed it – its CEO called the test flight "a great success." This raises the question: what even counts as failure anymore in the world of so-called "New Space" – the VC-fueled and risk-friendly private rocket sector?
Andoya, Lofoten Islands, Norway - The entrance to Andoya Space Center area is adorned with a dummy of a rocket Uhryn Larysa / Shutterstock.com
Lofoten Islands, Norway - The entrance to Andøya Space Center area is adorned with a dummy of a rocket (click to enlarge) – Pic: Uhryn Larysa / Shutterstock.com
The rocket in question was Isar Aerospace's Spectrum, the first test launch of which lifted off from the Andøya Spaceport, an island off Norway's northern coast, on March 30 at 1130 UTC. The launch was billed as the first orbital attempt by a commercial company based in continental Europe, and it had suffered multiple delays due to weather throughout the preceding week.
The two-stage Spectrum will be able to carry a payload of up to 1,000 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and its arrival has become increasingly crucial for European operators in light of recent uncertainty surrounding EU-US relations.
Unfortunately, the first launch failed. As the saying goes, "space is hard."
After approximately 20 seconds, the rocket appeared to lose attitude control and began to tumble mid-flight. Video footage suggests the rocket flipped, its engines shut down, and it plummeted into the sea near the launchpad, exploding on impact.
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.
Despite the failure, Isar Aerospace CEO and co-founder Daniel Metzler said, "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."
In a later briefing with reporters following the launch, the rocket biz continued to insist the launch was a success. The launchpad was intact, plenty of data was gathered, and the Flight Termination System did its job. So, all good then?
Not really. A trend is starting to be seen in the commercial rocket world where a failure is declared a success. Isar is in good company – SpaceX boss Elon Musk regularly insists Starship explosions are valuable learning experiences, even when those "successes" turn into high-altitude confetti.
If the intent of Isar Aerospace's Spectrum test flight was to clear the launchpad, shut itself down mid-air, and then have the vehicle plummet into a nearby body of water, then the mission was an unqualified success.
The rocket, to be clear, is meant to reach orbit and is not a submersible. The Reg wonders if Isar Aerospace would still be claiming "success" had Spectrum crashed back onto the launchpad instead.
Rockets are undoubtedly difficult. The fuel tends to be explosive, and innumerable parts must work together correctly in order to ensure a successful mission. The achievement of getting something off the launchpad is not to be underestimated, and congratulations are in order.
However, branding a mission that ended in a fireball over the sea as "a great success" is an ambitious spin.
Isar Aerospace managed to get its rocket off the launchpad on the first try, gathered some telemetry, and didn't do any serious damage to the infrastructure when the flight was terminated after the rocket went out of control. That's good. However it was not a success. ®