Sydney. Australia’s first rocket crashed on Wednesday after a 14-second flight in an attempt to reach orbit from the country’s soil.

Launched by Gilmore Space Technology, the Eris rocket was the first Australian-designed and built orbiting launch vehicle to fly from the country and was designed to carry small satellites into orbit.

It launched on a test flight on Wednesday morning from a spaceport near Bowen, a small town in the northern part of Queensland state.

Videos published by Australian news outlets showed the 23-meter (75-foot) rocket evacuating the launch tower and flying into the air before falling out of sight. Smoke billowed over the scene.

There were no reports of any casualties. In a statement posted on Facebook, the company welcomed the launch as a success. According to a spokesman, all four hybrid-powered engines were ignited and the first flight included 23 seconds of engine burning time and 14 seconds of flight.

Gilmore Space Technologies had planned previous launches of the rocket in May and early this month, but canceled those operations due to technical problems and bad weather.

Ceo Adam Gilmore said in a statement that he was happy that the rocket had come out of the launchpad. “Of course I loved more flight time, but I was happy with it,” he wrote on LinkedIn. Gilmore said it was “almost unheard of” for a private rocket company to successfully launch into orbit in its first attempt in February.

The company had earlier said that if the rocket leaves the ground, the launch will be successful. The infrastructure at the launch site remained “intact”, the statement said.

Rai Collins, mayor of the local Whitsunde Regional Council, said the launch was a “great achievement”. “This is an important first step towards the giant leap forward of the future commercial space industry in our region,” he wrote on Facebook.

Gilmore Space Technologies has private funders and this month a grant of 5 million Australian dollars ($3.2 million) was provided by the country’s federal government for the development of the Eris rocket. It followed the firm’s 52 million Australian$52 million grant agreement with the government in 2023 to advance the development and commercialization of new space technologies in Australia.

According to aerospace news platform NASASpaceFlight, the country has been the site of hundreds of sub-orbital vehicle launches, but only two successful launches into orbit from Australia. The first Aris test flight was the first orbital launch attempt from Australia in more than 50 years.