Rocket Lab fialy caught the first stage of its rocket with a helicopter
(Screen shot / Rocket Lab - YouTube)
Rocket Lab finally caught the first stage of an Electron rocket using a helicopter after an orbital launch.
After separation, the stage descended and released the parachute, then the helicopter hooked it to lower the stage onto a nearby vessel. However, the stage eventually was released due to its weight.
If the state of the stage allows, it will be re-launched for the first time in one of the company's next missions.
All launch vehicles, with the exception of the Falcons of SpaceX, are designed to be disposable, which means that all of their components are destroyed after launch or remain in space.
Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are semi-reusable rockets in which the first stage and nose fairing can be gently returned to Earth and reused.
The first stage lands on an offshore platform or spaceport, braking by retropropulsion, and the fairing is splashed down by parachutes.
This allows the reuse of the same components and significantly reduces the cost of launches and increases their frequency.
Rocket Lab’s Electron
The lightweight Electron rocket was originally designed to be disposable, but in 2019 Rocket Lab decided to adapt its first stage so that it could be launched multiple times.
Unlike the Falcons, the Electron doesn’t use retropropulsion, but a scheme in which the stage first reduces its speed using a parachute, and then a helicopter catches it in flight.
Since the end of 2020, the company has partially tested this scheme three times: after launch, the stage released a parachute and descended, but the helicopter couldn't catch it.
These tests allowed the engineers to test the behavior of the stage and its materials during re-entry at high speed.
Now, the company has made changes to the design based on the results of the analysis (probably to increase thermal protection).
The company also repeatedly tested another part of the scheme: it caught a mass-size model of the stage using a helicopter.
During the last launch, Rocket Lab tested the entire first stage return circuit for the first time.
A rocket with 34 small satellites from several companies took off from a spaceport on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.
Two and a half minutes later, the stages separated and the second stage continued to place the spacecraft into a sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 520 kilometers.
In the meantime, the first stage began its return accelerating to 2.3 kilometers per second and its individual parts warmed up to 2400 degrees Celsius.
At an altitude of 13 kilometers, it released a brake parachute, and at 6 kilometers the main one opened, its task was to reduce the speed to 10 meters per second.
Shortly thereafter, a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter flew up to the smoothly descending first stage, which was at the calculated crash site.
https://twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck/status/1521339043803385856?s=20&t=PCSnhP7Ka6tXuLZKYr9EsQ
Flying up to the step, the chopper managed to hook his cable with a hook at the end of the parachute cable.
After that, the helicopter should have delivered the stage to the nearby service vessel and gently lowered it onto it. However it had to let the stage go.
The company said that after the helicopter caught the stage, the pilot detected too much load and disconnected the stage.
Then it successfully splashed down, and the ship should lift it out of the water. The vehicle didn't seem to have suffered significant damage
Source:
- Rocket Lab YouTube: