Rocket Lab Catches And Releases Booster Rocket For Reuse

Yesterday, 02 May 2022, Rocket Lab, a space launch systems company, sent up its 26^th Electron rocket, deployed 34 satellites into space, and caught a rocket booster after its reentry from space with a helicopter!  While that image of disbelief comes to mind,

the author encourages you to check your favorite sites on the internet, though you won’t have to look hard to see how that actually worked out. This mission, named ‘There And Back Again’, popped up from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, another site is Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, USA.

Rocketlab has two main launch missions, electron (for small satellites), and neutron (the mega-constellation deployment, cargo resupply, and interplanetary missions). Yesterday’s launch was of the Electron variety, a 2+Kick Stage, carbon composite structure with a LOX/kerosene propellant, and a payload of 661lbs. After the first stage separated and returned to earth, its drogue parachute deployed at around 6,500ft, and their Sikorsky S-92 helicopter moved into provision and used a hook on a line to snag the parachute line.  Once the bait (booster) was on the line, the pilot of the helicopter felt the load characteristics to be different from what was previously experienced in testing, and released it into the water below. The drogue parachute is specially designed for deployment from a fast/rapid moving object, sometimes to provide more stability, slow down an object, or reduce its velocity enough to deploy a larger one!

Rocket Labs’ recovery team moved a vessel in place to transport it back to base for inspection and repairs before reuse on another flight. As with previous stage recoveries, a reaction control system is typically used to re-orient the booster stage to an ideal angle for re-entry, much like capsules from previous launches return to earth.

RocketLab USA began in 2006, and with the Atea-1 launch became the first private company in the southern hemisphere to reach space. In the years since, they have launched customer payloads into space, and successfully executed missions for DARPA, Space Test Program, USAF Space Command, Astro Digital, BlackSky, Unseenlabs, and others.

FMI:https://rocketlabusa.com