TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Rocket Lab just did something we’ve never seen before. More than successfully sending 34 satellites into orbit at once using a two-stage Electron rocket, Rocket Lab makes dramatic action captures booster the rocket that was hovering fell back to Earth.
The Electron rocket blasted off from its launch site in New Zealand on Monday, May 2, 2022. After sending the satellites into the sky, the main booster or first stage of the Electron rocket returned to Earth by parachute.
At that time, about 15 minutes after launch, as the parachute was already deployed to cover part of the rocket was flying towards the Pacific Ocean, a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter approached. The helicopter caught the parachute with its hook.
“Truly something extraordinary!” said Rocket Lab’s Senior Communications Advisor, Murielle Baker, via the launch webcast. “We caught the Electron booster rocket under his parachute!”
The pilot eventually released the rocket again after finding the helicopter’s flight to be unlike in previous capture tests. The test was carried out by catching the rocket that was released in the air–not post-launch. “But it’s no big deal, the rocket landed safely and our ship has evacuated it,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said on Twitter.
Beck was referring to the company’s flagship, which will bring parts of the rocket back for analysis. This is part of Rocket Lab’s efforts to create booster The main thing is that the Electron Rocket is reusable. “An achievement that will reduce costs and increase launch frequency,” the company said in a statement.
Similar initiatives have been initiated SpaceX, which lands and then reuses it to fly Falcon 9 rockets in each launch. The first tier rocket of the Falcon 9 landed propulsively, using the combustion engine to build it touchdown vertically gently on land or on a ship’s platform drone at sea.
The 18 meter high Electron Rocket Booster is too small to do the same. Rocket Lab explains, booster hers could not load enough remaining fuel for the landing mission. So, the company established a helicopter and hook strategy.
Rocket Lab has built up capabilities for its historic catch on Monday. The company has evacuated Electron booster rockets that fell into the sea three times, and succeeded in capturing booster mock rocket with a helicopter in a series drop test previously.
Rocket Lab’s launch of the Electron Rocket that brought 34 satellites into orbit and the capture of the part of the rocket that fell back to Earth on Monday, May 2, 2022. PHOTO/Twitter/@RocketLab
Monday’s launch mission — the 26th overall launch for Rocket Lab and Electron — was delayed several times as it waited for good weather to support capture operations in a zone about 170 miles off the coast of New Zealand. The mission is named ‘There And Back Again’.
The total number of satellites that Electron has launched so far is 146. In the future, Electron will not be the only fleet in Rocket Lab. The company is developing a larger rocket, the Neutron, which is scheduled to launch in 2024. Neutron Rocket designed to be partially reusable by landing methods such as the Falcon 9 rocket.
SPACE
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