Rocket Lab successfully launches but fails to catch first stage
Rocket Lab today used its Electron rocket to successfully launch a Swedish atmospheric research satellite.
The attempt to catch the first stage with a helicopter as the stage came back to Earth on parachutes failed. Based on the live stream, the failure appears unrelated to the helicopter, which never even made an attempt to capture. Nor did the video from the copter ever show the stage in view. A later update explained that the helicopter had lost telemetry from the stage, and for safety reasons would not attempt a capture without that information.
The company will still recover the stage from the ocean and test its engines. An engine from a previous ocean recovery actually passed all subsequent engine tests, suggesting it could even be reused on a launch.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
51 SpaceX
47 China
19 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 72 to 47 in the national rankings, though it still trails the rest of the world combined 75 to 72.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Rocket Lab today used its Electron rocket to successfully launch a Swedish atmospheric research satellite.
The attempt to catch the first stage with a helicopter as the stage came back to Earth on parachutes failed. Based on the live stream, the failure appears unrelated to the helicopter, which never even made an attempt to capture. Nor did the video from the copter ever show the stage in view. A later update explained that the helicopter had lost telemetry from the stage, and for safety reasons would not attempt a capture without that information.
The company will still recover the stage from the ocean and test its engines. An engine from a previous ocean recovery actually passed all subsequent engine tests, suggesting it could even be reused on a launch.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
51 SpaceX
47 China
19 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 72 to 47 in the national rankings, though it still trails the rest of the world combined 75 to 72.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Minor edit in first sentence: “to successfully launch”
Too bad about the failure to catch. Hope they can get some useful data from the recovered stage.
If a rocket can be reused after a splashdown then they never needed the helicopter. Doesn’t the Electron use carbon-fiber for a chassis? That won’t corrode. All they need is something to seal the engine from prolonged exposure to seawater and it looks like they’re mostly there already.
Andi: Thank you again for your help. Fixed.
SpaceX discovered the same thing with their fairings. Musk tweeted something like, “nothing wrong with a little swim”.
I wonder how.much return had to be done on the engine.
What, if any, damage to the tanks or the rocket body was inflicted on impact with the water.
Either way, a successful launch.
Rocket lab has nine straight months of launches, with a tenth scheduled.
I never did like the idea of inflight catches.