Rocket Lab Mostly Succeeds in Catching a Rocket With a Helicopter
After a series of delays, Rocket Lab has succeeded in catching one of its Electron rockets with a helicopter. While the operation was aborted before the booster could be landed safely, this is a big step toward a reusable launch system, something that has made Elon Musk’s SpaceX a popular option for governments and industries.
The Electron rocket is a much smaller vehicle than SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which we regularly see landing propulsively on a drone ship. It needs all its fuel to get payloads where they need to go, so Rocket Lab has opted to use parachutes to facilitate booster recovery. Doing it this way, Electron only loses 10 to 15 percent of its payload capacity.
Monday’s test followed a mission (known as “There and back again” as a nod to The Hobbit) in which 34 satellites were deployed to orbit. The second stage detached as planned several minutes after launch and continued on to space, but the first stage dropped back toward Earth. In the past, the first stage would fall into the ocean, and that would be it. However, Rocket Lab had a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter in the air to prove that, yes, you can catch a rocket booster with a helicopter.
During its descent, the booster deployed a drogue chute to cut its speed, followed by a larger main chute that slowed the metal tube to 10 meters per second. At that point, the S-92 was able to move in and grab the line between the chutes with a hook. The company conducted test runs in March that showed the helicopter could hoist the 2,200-pound booster, but this was the first time it successfully snatched it out of the air.
There 🚀and back again 🪂 pic.twitter.com/GEsOmpYKFh
— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) May 2, 2022
Rocket Lab reports that its pilots followed protocol and dropped the booster several minutes later as they were not happy with how it was hanging below the aircraft. The original plan was for the helicopter to bring the booster down to a ship for return to land. Instead, the team fished the booster out of the water after it splashed down. The company says that more flight tests should help solve the load issue, making helicopter booster recovery as routine as SpaceX’s vertical landings.
A partially or fully reusable vehicle has the potential to reduce launch costs dramatically. SpaceX regularly launches the same booster engine four or five times, saving it from building a new one every time. This stands in contrast to expendable rockets like the Atlas V, which cost over $100 million per launch — possibly more when configured for the delayed Starliner crew capsule. A Falcon 9 launch costs just $67 million, and that’s after a recent price bump to account for inflation. Electron launches are currently much cheaper at $7.5 million, and being able to reuse the first stage could make them even more economical.
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