Used rocket caught mid-air by helicopter

IN A real-life mission that seemed more like a scene from a Hollywood film a helicopter caught a falling rocket booster, increasing hopes that an era of low-cost space travel is on the horizon.

Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, the aerospace firm that carried out the operation, called it “something of a supersonic ballet”.

Elon Musk’s Spacex is the only other company that recovers boosters, a practice that saves it millions of dollars on every launch. But it uses boosters to land craft safely, while Rocket Lab’s ambitious scheme relied on helicopter pilots grabbing its 39ft unit.

“Trying to catch a rocket as it falls back to Earth is no easy feat; we’re absolutely threading the needle here, but... if we can use a rocket twice, we’ve just doubled our production,” Mr Beck said before the launch.

An Electron rocket launched yesterday put 34 satellites into orbit before jettisoning its booster, monitored by mission control in Long Beach, California. Parachutes slowed its descent to about 10m per second around 150 nautical miles off New Zealand’s east coast, enabling a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter pilot to grab its parachute lines, in order to convey it to land, about 6,500ft above sea level.

However, the rocket was dropped safely into the Pacific after unexpected “load characteristics” were detected, a Rocket Lab spokesperson said.