Rocket Lab to attempt 1st stage recovery by helicopter, beginning early next year
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab announced today that based on the data obtained during its previous launch in November, the company will attempt a helicopter recovery in the air of its Electron rocket’s first stage, starting with its first launches in 2022.
With the success of this latest mission, Rocket Lab will now move to aerial capture attempts with a helicopter for future recovery missions in the first half of 2022. Rocket Lab’s recovery helicopter will include auxiliary fuel tanks for extended flight time during the capture attempt. While Rocket Lab’s engineers and recovery vessel will also be stationed at sea, Rocket Lab’s primary objective will be to return Electron’s booster to the mainland while attached to the helicopter. Improvements to the launch vehicle for this next recovery attempt will include a thermal protection system applied to the entire stage and its nine Rutherford engines to help it endure heat of up to 2,400 degrees Celsius during re-entry, and modifications to the parachute system including an engagement line for the recovery helicopter to capture and secure the booster.
The company has a launch scheduled for the end of November, but apparently it is not going to attempt a first stage recovery by helicopter during that mission.
If successful, Rocket Lab will have become the second company able to reuse its first stage, and thus cut the price it charges for launches significantly.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab announced today that based on the data obtained during its previous launch in November, the company will attempt a helicopter recovery in the air of its Electron rocket’s first stage, starting with its first launches in 2022.
With the success of this latest mission, Rocket Lab will now move to aerial capture attempts with a helicopter for future recovery missions in the first half of 2022. Rocket Lab’s recovery helicopter will include auxiliary fuel tanks for extended flight time during the capture attempt. While Rocket Lab’s engineers and recovery vessel will also be stationed at sea, Rocket Lab’s primary objective will be to return Electron’s booster to the mainland while attached to the helicopter. Improvements to the launch vehicle for this next recovery attempt will include a thermal protection system applied to the entire stage and its nine Rutherford engines to help it endure heat of up to 2,400 degrees Celsius during re-entry, and modifications to the parachute system including an engagement line for the recovery helicopter to capture and secure the booster.
The company has a launch scheduled for the end of November, but apparently it is not going to attempt a first stage recovery by helicopter during that mission.
If successful, Rocket Lab will have become the second company able to reuse its first stage, and thus cut the price it charges for launches significantly.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Here’s a paper
https://www.ulalaunch.com/docs/default-source/evolution/partial-rocket-reuse-using-mid-air-recovery-2008-7874.pdf#:~:text=Mid-Air%20recovery%20%28MAR%29%20has%20been%20developed%20for%20many,aircraft%20flew%20through%20the%20wake%20of%20the%20parachute.
It doesn’t have the “cool” factor that landing the rocket does, but it seems effective enough.
Not as cool as landing, but it may be the best that can be done with such a small stage.
It goes without saying that this will give them a leg up on other smallsat launchers not only in booster reuse but also in being able to quickly review each booster for improvements that will increase both reliability and reuse.
“Cool” doesn’t pay the bills
I really thought the first re-usable would have been the winged Baikal. It was never properly supported. Fly-backs only need to ignite once…and by not having to ignite twice-coming back tail-end first-the engines could be made to last longer.
The ‘cool factor’ of tail-sitters may indeed be blinding investors. Rocket recovery methods of all types is needed. Sea Dragon, wet workshops for stage-and-a-half designs is also re-use.
Col Beausabre noted: ““Cool” doesn’t pay the bills”
Well, it does, a little. Got to have some sizzle with the steak. Most investors are not specialists in your area of expertise. They are specialists in return-on-investment, but also like some ‘wow’ factor. When they aren’t flying their Learjets to Nova Scotia, they can go to the Cape, and watch ‘their’ rockets land.
It’s been done Before :History:
How to Catch a Spy Satellite
https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/space-race/online/sec400/sec432.htm
Fairchild Flying Boxcar Sat Film recovery:
https://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/covert-operations/how-to-catch-a-falling-spy-satellite/3841223113001
The winged Baikal was never designed for orbital flight.
The swing wing design was pretty good but it did have a few flaws.
The center of balance being the biggest.
Any left over fuel would slosh around. First at the very tail end then it would move more to the middle during level flight then back to the tail again for landing.
Could you imagine a one ton ball rolling around inside a cargo plane.
One thing they don‘t need is an expensive guidance/navigation system, and the money to develop one. The person driving the helicopter is the GNC package!
With pointy end up, flame-y end down landings, aren’t we looking at the future ability to quickly restack the launch vehicle so that it can have a high launch cadence? Landing on a runway seems cooler to me, but it takes a movement to the launch pad and a rotation before restacking for launch, each action taking valuable time to perform. Landing flame-y end down at the pad, as SpaceX plans, only requires the restack move.
Rocket Lab, of course, is not landing but is catching. Unlike SpaceX, their idea is not to be able to launch multiple times each day but to save the construction time so that they can once or more times each launch week, so at this time they are not as eager to land next to the launch pad. The goals are different, so the strategies are different.
Should read: “so that they can launch once or more times each week”
“Not as cool as landing, but it may be the best that can be done with such a small stage.”
That’s the problem. It’s a very small stage, and the mass penalty for the necessary propellant, and the hydraulics for gimbaling on landing were just prohibitive.
No, it appears Peter Beck is going to leave retropropulsion to his next generation rocket, the Neutron. It will actually be large enough to absorb the mass penalties.
Kewl!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kwAPr5G6WA
sippin_bourbon,
Thank you for the excellent video.
I like the way Peter Beck thinks. What a surprising way to return the fairings.