Rocket Lab Captures Booster in Mid-Air for the First Time — What Does It Mean for Them?

New Zealand-based space company Rocket Labs has successfully launched a rocket and retrieved its booster mid-air for the first time.

According to the space company's announcement, it had successfully caught one of the boosters of its Electron orbital launch vehicle following its 26th Electron mission on May 3 following the successful launch mission named "There and Back Again."

Rocket Lab's next mission is scheduled for May 2022.

Rocket Lab 26th Electron Mission Details

Rocket Lab's announcement mentioned that the successful mid-air capture of its Electron booster was done with the company's Sikorsky S-92 helicopter, which captured the booster's parachute at 6,500 ft.

Rocket Lab re-oriented the booster into the ideal angle that gives the best chances to withstand the heat and pressure expected during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, pr Engadget.

The pilots of the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter found different load characteristics than what was previously expected during testing. The boosters were then offloaded for a successful splashdown. According to Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck's tweet about the mid-air capture, the pilots weren't happy with the way the booster was hanging below the helicopter desite the mid-air capture being successful. As such, the pilots were forced to drop it into the ocean.

The successful mid-air capture of Rocket Lab's Electron booster was said to be a major milestone in the company's pursuit to make a reusable rocket to make launches much more frequent and less expensive than it already is.

Rocket Lab's previous launches, specifically its 16th, 20th, and 22nd missions, saw the boosters execute a controlled ocean splashdown before being retrieved and returned to the company's production complex. However, letting the boosters do a controlled ocean splashdown exposes them to potentially damaging impacts at sea, exposing them to saltwater, per Forbes.

The Implicaition Behind There and Back Again's Success

The success of the launch and retrieval mission is important to Rocket Labs as it showed that they can now make future launches more frequently and less expensive.

"Bringing a rocket back from space and catching it with a helicopter is something of a supersonic ballet,"Beck said. "A tremendous number of factors have to align[,] and many systems have to work together flawlessly, so I am incredibly proud of the stellar efforts of our Recovery Team and all of our engineers who made this mission and our first catch a success."

Beck also mentioned that Rocket Lab will assess the stage and determine what changes it has to make to the system and procedures for next missions that involve helicopter catchs and eventual re-flights.

Rocket Lab's midair recovery project is a part of its efforts to make the Electron two-stage, partially recoverable orbital launch vehicle the first reusable small satellite launcher.

The space company has plans on building the Neutron rocket, a reuseable rocket that returns to the launch pad automatically after take-off.

Rocket Labs hope to launch the first of its Neutron rockets in 2024, per Space.com.