Catching a Falling Rocket
Rocket Lab plan to use helicopters to catch a falling rocket
SpaceX land and reuse orbital rockets so frequently they almost make it look easy. Even so, no other company has yet managed to do the same. Might that soon change? Next week New Zealand-based Rocket Lab will make a serious attempt at catching a falling rocket — and, if all works out, at launching it again.
The company has been launching small rockets for a while now, typically carrying a handful of microsats and cubesats into orbit. After each launch the rocket has been lost, either falling into the Pacific or burning up in the atmosphere. That’s a shame, because reusing rockets is an essential part of lowering the cost of spaceflight.
Rocket Lab has gradually been preparing its Electron rocket for reusability. In recent launches the company has managed to guide the rocket back through the atmosphere towards a target area of the ocean. This time the company hopes to catch the rocket before it hits the water, using helicopters to pluck the falling rocket from the air.
