The American company Rocket Lab has announced that during the next mission of the Electron rocket, which is scheduled for the second half of April, it will try to catch the first stage with the help of a helicopter for the first time. During the fall, the stage will release a parachute, which will reduce its speed, catch it right in flight and deliver it to shore, bypassing the flooding into the ocean. In the future, specialists will study the stage to determine whether it is possible to launch it again.
At the moment, almost all launch vehicles are disposable, that is, all their components are destroyed after launch or remain in orbit. Only the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have a partially reusable design: their first stage lands on jet engines, and the head fairings are driven by parachutes. After returning from space, they can be reused, which significantly reduces the cost of launches. NASA also had a reusable space system previously tested in practice: the Space Shuttle reused a spaceplane landing on the runway and side boosters landing on parachutes.
Rocket Lab initially developed the Electron light rocket as a one-off, but in 2019 announced that it planned to modify its first stage for reuse. To do this, it will use a parachute, but with a difference from the approach used in the Space Shuttle and Falcon: after descending by parachute, the stage will catch a helicopter in flight.
The company has already partially tested this method by installing a mass-dimensional model by helicopter, as well as bringing three real first stages into the ocean after launches. On April 19, Rocket Lab will try to fully test this approach for the first time during the next mission to launch 34 satellites from several companies.
An hour before the launch, the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter will arrive at the stage descent zone, located about 280 kilometers from the coast of New Zealand, from where the rocket will take off. Two and a half minutes after launch, the first stage will separate, and the second will continue to put satellites into orbit. During the descent, the first stage will warm up to 2400 degrees Celsius due to entry into the dense layers of the atmosphere.
At an altitude of 13 kilometers, the braking parachute will open, and at 6 kilometers, the stage will release the main parachute, which will reduce its speed to 10 meters per second. After that, a helicopter will fly up to her and try to hook the parachute with a rope. If this stage is successful, the helicopter will take the stage back to the coast.
After the mission, engineers will analyze the condition of the components of the trapped stage to understand whether it is suitable for re-launch. It is known that according to the results of three launches with the stage being driven into the ocean, engineers made changes to the rocket design that increase its resistance to the conditions that arise during the return to the dense layers of the atmosphere at high speed.
Despite the fact that Electron will use an unusual stage return scheme with a parachute and a helicopter, the future Neutron rocket Rocket Lab plans to apply the proven SpaceX method of jet landing. Moreover, like SpaceX, the company plans to return the head fairing, but this will not require a parachute or other separate braking system: the fairing flaps will be built into the first stage and will not be reset, as happens in conventional rockets.
Grigory Kopiev
