Using a helicopter to catch a falling rocket is such a complex job that Peter Beck likens it to a “supersonic ballet.”
3 May 2022, 05: 50
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Using a helicopter to catch a falling rocket is such a complex job that Peter Beck likens it to a “supersonic ballet.”
Rocket Lab, the business that Beck established, partly pulled off the accomplishment Tuesday as it presses to make its little Electron rockets recyclable. But after briefly capturing the invested rocket, a helicopter team was rapidly required to let it go onceagain for security factors, and it fell into the Pacific Ocean where it was gathered by a waiting boat.
The California-based business frequently introduces 18-meter (59-foot) rockets from the remote Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand to provide satellites into area.
On Tuesday, the Electron rocket was introduced in the earlymorning and sentout 34 satellites into orbit priorto the primary booster area started falling to Earth. Its descent was slowed to about 10 meters (33 feet) per 2nd by a parachute.
That’s when the helicopter team sprang into action, dangling a long line with a hook bel