A research rocket launched early Monday morning by Sweden Space Corp (SSC) from the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden was damaged and fell 15 kilometers deep into Norwegian territory.

The rocket reached a height of 250 kilometers, where zero-gravity experiments are conducted. Due to a malfunction, it crashed in the mountains, at an altitude of 1,000 meters and at a distance of 10 kilometers from the nearest community, explained Philip Olson, the head of the SSC press office. As he said, “when things go wrong” the governments of Sweden, Norway and other countries are informed.

SSC said it is working to recover the rocket’s payload and has launched an investigation to determine what went wrong.

“Norwegian authorities take any unauthorized activity on the Norwegian side of the border very seriously,” a spokeswoman for Norway’s foreign ministry said by email. In the case of a border violation, those responsible should immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he explained, noting that the ministry has not been officially informed by Stockholm.

The spokeswoman added that Norway would also have to give its consent for a debris recovery mission to proceed on its soil.

The Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority was not immediately available for comment.