Lab catches – then drops – rocket booster
Rocket Lab has successfully caught one of its Electron rocket boosters, using a helicopter, as it parachuted back towards the Pacific Ocean after launch.
But shortly after the capture, the pilot noticed the helicopter was behaving differently than it had in testing, and for safety the booster was dropped into the ocean, where it will be recovered by a vessel.
Yesterday at 11.06am, the falling rocket booster was caught mid-air by a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter, which weighed 7 tons and was about the size of a school bus.
The helicopter was equipped with a long line with a capture hook on the end which wasmanoeuvred onto the falling rocket booster’s parachute line.
Rocket Lab spokesperson, Murielle Baker said catching a rocket booster as it fell from space was as difficult as it sounded.
The helicopter had caught the falling rocket three times in practice runs, but the unconventional mission was far from a sure bet, she said. ‘‘This is the ultimate recovery mission,’’ she said.
The Electron rocket booster would be brought back to the Mahia peninsula where Rocket Lab engineers would assess whether it was suitable to be reused for further flights.
The New Zealand-founded firm, which is now headquartered in the United States, planned to conduct the launch on Saturday morning, but pushed it back to Tuesday to take advantage of better weather.
As well as the first time a rocket booster has been successfully caught mid-air on re-entry, the mission was also the largest payload in a Rocket Lab mission so far, taking 34 satellites into orbit.
The mission was Rocket Lab’s 25th commercial mission from its base on theMāhia Peninsular near Gisborne.
Rocket Lab would continue its reusable rocket programwith the development of the much larger Neutron rocket, which was designed to land safely back onto the launch area.
Rocket Lab first practised catching a falling rocket booster in 2020 by dropping a dummy rocket from one helicopter and snagging it with another. It hoped that if it could snag them before they hit sea, they would be in better condition and would be able to reuse more components.
The 34 small satellites launched into orbit for a variety of customers on yesterday’smission has brought the total number of satellites Rocket Lab has launched to 146.