Rocket Lab: Helicopter catches returning booster over the Pacific

The US-New Zealand Rocket Lab company has taken a big step in its quest to re-use its launch vehicles by catching one as it fell back to Earth.

A helicopter grabbed the booster in mid-air as it parachuted back towards the Pacific Ocean.

The pilots were not happy with how the rocket stage felt slung beneath them and released for a splashdown.

Peter Beck praised his team's efforts.

The CEO said that bringing a rocket back from space and catching it with a helicopter is something of a supersonic ballet.

I am incredibly proud of the stellar efforts of our recovery team and all of our engineers who made this mission and our first catch a success, because a tremendous number of factors have to align.

Mr Beck said the hard parts of rocket recovery had been proven and he was looking forward to his staff honing their mid-air technique.

The rocket stage was picked up by a ship and later published by anentrepreneur. It appeared to have coped well with the heat that would have been generated on the descent through the atmosphere.

Image source, Rocket Lab

Only one company recovers and flies rocket boosters. The California-based firm, which goes by the name of SpaceX, lands its stages back near the launch pad or on a barge out at sea.

If maintenance can be kept to a minimum, the cost of rocket missions can be reduced. Between flights of its Falcon vehicles, little work is required.

To make the practice worthwhile, Rocket Lab will have to demonstrate similar gains.

The two-stage Electron vehicles were launched from New Zealand.

The initial work of getting a mission off Earth is done in the first stage, and once the propellants are used, they fall back towards the planet.

The second stage is used to place the satellite passengers in the correct location in the correct order. The second stage and the kick-stage eventually fall back into the atmosphere.

The first stage is given thermal protection as it plunges to Earth. The drag will take out a lot of the energy before the parachutes allow the S-92 to move in for capture.

The mission left the ground at 10:49 NZST on Tuesday.

The primary goal was to take a diverse group of 35 satellites to a low altitude and then to return them to Earth. There were mini-satellites for Alba Orbital and E-Space in the payloads.

Image source, Rocket Lab

Mr Wyler is well known in the space business and has been described as the "godfather of mega-constellations", the giant telecommunications networks being developed by the likes of Amazon and OneWeb.

OneWeb was founded by Mr Wyler and O3b was founded to connect the unconnected.

E-Space proposes to loft tens of thousands of satellites. The businessman claims that his constellation would catch space debris and bring it out of the sky in order to have a positive impact on the space environment.

Image source, Rocket Lab