Rocket Lab successfully catches first stage with helicopter
Capitalism in space: In successfully placing 34 smallsat into orbit today using its Electron rocket, Rocket Lab also successfully caught the first stage with helicopter as it descending by parachute.
The screen capture to the right from the live feed shows that first stage on parachute just before the helicopter hook captures it. That helicopter is now returning to land with that stage, which it will then gently deposit for study and refurbishment. Though it is likely this first recovered first stage will not get reused, that possibility remains, and regardless this success points to the future reuse of all Electron first stages.
UPDATE: Because of “different load characteristics” than seen during previous tests, the helicopter pilot released the stage for safety reasons, while still over the ocean. The company was then able to recover it, but though they can now study it no reuse will be possible.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
17 SpaceX
13 China
6 Russia
3 Rocket Lab
2 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 25 to 13 in the national rankings, with the U.S. leading all other nations combined 25 to 22.
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Capitalism in space: In successfully placing 34 smallsat into orbit today using its Electron rocket, Rocket Lab also successfully caught the first stage with helicopter as it descending by parachute.
The screen capture to the right from the live feed shows that first stage on parachute just before the helicopter hook captures it. That helicopter is now returning to land with that stage, which it will then gently deposit for study and refurbishment. Though it is likely this first recovered first stage will not get reused, that possibility remains, and regardless this success points to the future reuse of all Electron first stages.
UPDATE: Because of “different load characteristics” than seen during previous tests, the helicopter pilot released the stage for safety reasons, while still over the ocean. The company was then able to recover it, but though they can now study it no reuse will be possible.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
17 SpaceX
13 China
6 Russia
3 Rocket Lab
2 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 25 to 13 in the national rankings, with the U.S. leading all other nations combined 25 to 22.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Caught it and dropped it. They had to fish it out of the water.
Almost
Evolutionary iteration(s).
You learn more from your mistakes & failures.
Or, you should.
The goal is robustness, not momentary glory.
Except for Boeing’s Starliner, we should accept failure in the same way that Nature accepts that not all Salmon make it up and over the waterfalls, on their way to the spawning grounds..
@GaryMike . . . yes, but do you want to be one of the salmon that doesn’t make it up the waterfalls to spawn?
That pilot will never buy another drink in their life: ‘Let me tell you ’bout the time I caught a rocket out of thee air with a helicopter’. A fantastic display of airmanship, as rotary-wing is less forgiving than fixed-wing if something goes sideways.
And if everything worked right the first time, we’d be living in a Progressive fantasy: and thankfully, the Universe will not allow that.
Big style points. Landing a rocket on land or barge is so 2021. I do wonder about taking that kind of risk when there is proven recovery tech that is safer.
There was talk of transporting Saturn V first stages by chopper…maybe capture. To this day, Russia still has the greatest lift record with that mammoth. We never beat that Sputnik moment. For shame!
Peter Beck has tweeted, though, that the engines “are going back to space, I reckon”. So perhaps the engines will be viable for reuse. No mention of the airframe.
Nice coverage–and I highly enjoy the Rocket Lab announcer-girl, in contrast to the highly annoying lady at SpaceX. (IMHO)
Excellent job catching the 1st stage, (I’m no Engineer, but it feels like that’s 95% of the Adventure unto itself.)
I haven’t watched this repetitively (yet)–from what vantage point is the camera for the parachute deploy?
“MLB: Almost Amazing Plays….”
https://youtu.be/3uQqYknJT4g
5:25