Successful Rocket Lab launch and descent of 1st stage
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully used its Electron rocket to 30 smallsats into orbit from its launchpad in New Zealand.
They also did their first launch test of their planned method for recovering the first stage for reuse. In their case the first stage will use parachutes to slow its descent, and will then be grabbed by a helicopter to be brought back to land. On this launch they were only testing the parachute portion of this plan, and allowed the stage to land in the water, where they then recovered it.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
30 China
20 SpaceX
12 Russia
5 ULA
5 Rocket Lab
The U.S. now leads China 33 to 30 in the national rankings.
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 today successfully used its Electron rocket to 30 smallsats into orbit from its launchpad in New Zealand.
They also did their first launch test of their planned method for recovering the first stage for reuse. In their case the first stage will use parachutes to slow its descent, and will then be grabbed by a helicopter to be brought back to land. On this launch they were only testing the parachute portion of this plan, and allowed the stage to land in the water, where they then recovered it.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
30 China
20 SpaceX
12 Russia
5 ULA
5 Rocket Lab
The U.S. now leads China 33 to 30 in the national rankings.
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
Cool stuff.
–> Enjoyed the lovely Ariana Ryan color commentary as well.
“… the first stage will use parachutes to slow its descent, and will then be grabbed by a helicopter to …”
I assume this is outmoded technology compared to how SpaceX recovers its first stages. Meaning if SpaceX open sourced its tech, RocketLab would be able to launch at a lower cost. And maybe both companies benefit in that engineers would be better able to move from company to company, sharing what they know, applying their skills more efficiently.
Steve Richter, the helicopter grab makes sense for objects small enough to be grabbed by a helicopter, the SpaceX 1st stage is too large for that method.
Outmoded is the wrong way to look at it. They covered this when they announced their plan. Falcon 9 is a large, heavy launcher that has plenty of reserve dV and can afford the extra mass of landing legs and fuel for the re-entry and landing burns. Electron has a much tighter dV budget, but is also smaller and lighter, so the parachutes are correspondingly smaller, lighter, and easier to develop. And catching it with a helicopter sounds low-tech, but it means no landing legs are needed, nor do they need a barge and the slow travel time back to a port where it can be lifted off by crane and then transported by truck to a refurbishing facility. I don’t think RocketLab has provided these details, but if the helicopter is delivering the booster right to the refurb site, their turnaround time could possibly be faster than SpaceX manages.
I would like to Rocket lab use the same type of system Space X is using for their fairing recovery.
Steerable parachutes.
The helicopter catch is still a dangerous maneuver.
Would a water landing be that detrimental to a properly prepped rocket?
The Electron first stage is seen in the Pacific Ocean in this image shared by Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck on Twitter. Credit: Rocket Lab via Peter Beck
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/11/20/rocket-lab-recovers-booster-after-launch-with-30-small-satellites/