Europe has its first commercial orbital rocket

German company Isar Aerospace has successfully launched Europe's first entirely commercial orbital rocket. It attempted to achieve the feat last March, but that lasted all of 30 seconds before the vehicle crashed into the sea and exploded.

This time the company managed to get the two-stage Spectrum into low Earth orbit from a Norwegian spaceport. CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Metzler said in a press release: "Today, Isar Aerospace opened space from Continental Europe.