Rocket shines under the northern lights | Space photo of the day for March 25, 2026

Isar Aerospace, based in Germany, is attempting to launch Spectrum into orbit on Wednesday (March 25) from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway. If it is successful, it will become the first rocket to reach orbit from European soil.

While the first flight carried no payloads, this second flight, which Isar has named "Onward and Upward," will attempt to put five cubesats and one scientific experiment in orbit.

In this photo, tendrils of green light appear in the sky over the Spectrum rocket upright on its launch pad, thanks to the northern lights, or aurora borealis. This stunning phenomenon occurs when charged particles from the sun collide with atmospheric gases like oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere, exciting the atoms in these gases and releasing energy in the form of light.