A rocket company will try to catch a booster as it plummets through the air, a feat that could herald in a new era of cheaper and more frequent light cargo flights into space.
Most rockets burn up fuel in a matter of minutes and then plummet into the ocean after they're done with their mission. After an intentional splashdown, many boosters have to be fished out of the sea.
This mission, which Rocket Lab has dubbed "There and Back Again", is the company's first attempt at retrieving one of its Electron rockets, a 59-foot workhorse for launching small satellites into space. The booster's main shaft will not be able to touch the corrosive, salty seawater if it is done so.
The Electron rocket is Rocket Lab's small satellite launcher workhorse. Credit: Rocket Lab
In the rapidly growing world of commercial rocketry, spaceflight companies are trying to save their multimillion-dollar engines housed in their boosters, the part that gets the spaceships off the ground. The goal of Rocket Lab is to have the first orbital-class launcher in the small satellite market.
A successful capture of the Electron rocket would be like threading the eye of a needle, with the thread whipping in the wind and the needle darting around like a house cat. The cost of the equipment at stake would make it crazy for Rocket Lab to not try the stunt.
The cost of a ticket would be very high if they threw away the plane every time you flew across the US or anywhere. Nobody would be flying.
"Imagine if every time you flew across the United States or flew anywhere, they threw away the plane when they were done."
The capture technique has been around for a while. In the 1960s, the United States was unable to send back data from spy satellites digitally, so it relied on a relatively primitive system that flung film canisters toward the earth, slowed them down with parachutes, and dispatched planes.
Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, said that building a rocket gives customers more frequent access to space. According to a report published by the company last year, the company spends 40 percent of its manufacturing time making boosters, which are the first stage of the rocket, and the component represents about half the cost of making each Electron.
Beck said it was all about how we reduce the cost and the time frame to get things on the moon.
The success of the Falcon 9 rockets in landing on platforms at sea will help pay for other ambitions, like founder Musk's dream of sending people to Mars on an even bigger rocket.
In March 2020, Rocket Lab dropped a replica from a helicopter and waited for its parachute to deploy, then caught the parachute drogue line with a second helicopter just under a mile above the ocean.
The rocket builder won't have complete control over the capture. A large twin-engine helicopter used for rescue operations or offshore oil hauling will get into position about an hour before the Electron blasts off. 2.5 minutes after the launch, the booster will plummet back to Earth at a speed of 5,150 mph.
When the booster reaches about 8 miles above the South Pacific Ocean, a parachute will open and slow it down to 22 mph, making it an easier target for the helicopter to catch. The helicopter will swoop in and take it out of the sky in eight or so minutes.
Rocket Lab will try to recover the rocket booster eight-or-so minutes after takeoff, by plucking it out of the sky with a helicopter and grappling hook. Credit: Rocket Lab
The booster is expected to reach a temperature of over 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit, well over the melting point of steel, as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere. The heat shield on the rocket helps protect the engines from the elements during the descent.
The launch would happen no earlier than April 28. For this first try, the team wants to eliminate weather as a factor so we can focus solely on the catch. People will be able to watch it live.
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For this mission, the rocket will lift off from Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, to send 34 satellites on a polar orbit synchronized with the sun around Earth. The payload includes satellites that will monitor light pollution, demonstrate space junk removal technology, and facilitate maritime surveillance. Right now, the New Zealand pad is the only one capable of launching an Electron, but Rocket Lab will begin using the launch site in Wallops Island, Virginia, as early as December, potentially employing the same parachute-and-helicopter recovery method.
If the maneuver works, the helicopter will return the rocket to the recovery boat and bring it back to land.
It could fail.
That is a reality most space entrepreneurs accept these days in order to turn what was previously considered too hard into a routine aspect of business.
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