In a world first, Rocket Lab will attempt to catch its Electron rocket as it falls from space, using a hook mounted on a helicopter.
By Jonathan O.
An artist's impression of a rocket.
There is a rocket lab.
A US launch company is about to attempt a historic first: catching a rocket falling back to Earth in mid-air using a helicopter.
The company, Rocket Lab, will attempt to launch one of its rockets from New Zealand on April 28, weather permitting. There and Back Again will see a small rocket carry 34 satellites to Earth and one to monitor Earth's light pollution.
The first and second stages of the rocket will separate after two and a half minutes. The former will fall back to Earth at temperatures of more than 2000 degrees C and speeds of more than 8000 kilometres per hour. It will deploy a parachute to slow its descent to just over 35 kilometres per hour, before entering a capture zone above the Pacific Ocean.
The helicopter will attempt to grab the parachute with a hook about 18 minutes after launch. If it succeeds, it will transport the rocket back to land and possibly be used again in a future mission.
Trying to catch a rocket as it falls back to Earth is not an easy task.
The Electron rocket is about a quarter the size of the Falcon 9. Rocket Lab hopes to follow in the footsteps of Musk's company by using mid-air capture instead of landing on the ground to reduce launch costs.
Salt damage caused by previous launches made the rockets unable to be reused, so Rocket Lab has practiced parachuting its rockets back into the ocean.
In 2004, NASA's Genesis spaceship failed to deploy its parachute and crash-land in the Utah desert, damaging its priceless samples of solar wind.
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