Isar Aerospace, based in Germany, is the first in a crop of new European rocket companies to attempt an orbital launch. If all went according to plan, Isar's Spectrum rocket would have arced to the north from Andøya Spaceport in Norway and reached a polar orbit.

Spectrum lifted off from Norway’s picturesque Andøya Spaceport and cleared the launch pad. But after about 30 seconds, the vehicle activated its flight termination system, shutting down its engines and sending it tumbling nose-down into the sea “in a controlled manner,” Isar said.

Isar Aerospace managed to launch its Spectrum rocket this past weekend after several aborted attempts, only for it to crash shortly after liftoff in a fiery implosion in the nearby ocean. The rocket appeared to begin a pitch maneuver to push toward its planned retrograde orbit,

The Germany company's first Spectrum rocket lifted off Sunday morning (March 30) from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway on the first-ever orbital launch attempt from European soil.

German startup Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from the Andøya spaceport on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. ET for its first test flight. The rocket successfully lifted off from its launchpad and spent around 30 seconds in the air before it started falling back down toward the Arctic Ocean, creating a massive fireball over the water.

The unmanned Spectrum rocket, an orbital rocket developed by German start-up Isar Aerospace, crashed and exploded 40 seconds after takeoff.