Rocket Lab catches falling rocket with helicopter

6:11 am on 4 May 2022

Rocket Lab successfully caught a falling rocket stage in mid-air using a helicopter, before dropping it in the ocean.

The falling rocket under a parachute approaches a hook suspended from a customised Sikorsky S92 helicopter moments before being caught by the helicopter. Photo: Rocket Lab / Screenshot

In a post on Twitter, the company confirmed its There and Back Again mission had successfully used a helicopter to catch part of the launched rocket as it fell back to earth.

Helicopter catch! Stay tuned for more recovery details and payload deployment in around 50 minutes.
— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) May 2, 2022

After lifting off to send 34 satellites toward orbit in New Zealand at 10.50am on Monday, the California-based company's four-story-tall Electron booster stage fell back through Earth's atmosphere and deployed a series of parachutes to brake its speed.

At high altitudes above the South Pacific, just off the New Zealand coast, a helicopter hanging a long, vertical cable from its underside was steered by two pilots over the booster, which had stretched to its side a capture line as it descended under a parachute at roughly 35 km per hour.

But the helicopter pilots were forced to release the rocket from the cable and dunk it into the Pacific Ocean after noticing "different load characteristics" than what had been experienced during previous capture tests, a Rocket Lab spokesperson later confirmed.

A fully successful test would have involved carrying the rocket booster back to land or onto a barge without having it touch ocean water.

"No big deal," Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck wrote on Twitter. "The rocket splashed down safely and the ship is loading it now."

It had been hoped the technique would allow Rocket Labt to reuse the booster for future flights but it was not immediately clear whether that would now happen.

The company has previously said if the mission went to plan the next step would be to try to reuse parts of the rockets each time they launch, which would be a big boost for production.