A research rocket launched from northern Sweden crash-landed in neighboring Norway, sending the Norwegian foreign ministry into a state of irritation as they were not immediately informed of the incident by their Swedish counterparts in a rare spat between the two countries.
The rocket, launched early Monday from the Esrange Space Centre in Kiruna, northern Sweden, plunged into a mountainside in the Malselv municipality in Norway's far north, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the closest inhabited area.
No one was injured and no material damage was reported.
"The crash of a rocket like this is a severe incident that can cause serious damage," the foreign ministry in Oslo said.
"When such a border violation occurs, it is crucial that those responsible immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities through the proper channels," it said.
"The Norwegian authorities take any unauthorized activity on the Norwegian side of the border very seriously," it noted.
The rocket was carrying out experiments in zero gravity at an altitude of 250 kilometers.
"The rocket took a slightly longer and more westerly trajectory than calculated and landed after a completed flight 15 kilometers into Norway," the Swedish Space Corporation said in a statement on Monday.
"Work on retrieving the payload is underway," it added.
Norway's foreign ministry also noted that retrieval work was not supposed to begin without Norwegian authorization, which had not been granted.
Norway's Civil Aviation Authority learned of the crash from the Swedish Space Corporation's press release on Monday.
