(ORDO NEWS) — According to Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, the company is considering moving away from “catching” rocket stages descending by parachute using a helicopter.
A few years ago, aerospace company Rocket Lab, proud of its success in relaunching SpaceX‘s reusable rocket stages, announced its intention to reuse the first stages of its Electron rockets.
For this, it was planned to apply the technology of air pickup. The idea was that the stage descending by parachute would be picked up by a helicopter and then returned to land in order to avoid contact of the stage with sea water, which could have a negative effect on rocket technology components.
The first attempt to “catch” occurred in May last year, but then the helicopter pilot, after capturing the stage, after a while had to drop it into the water.
The second attempt was to take place in November.
But the company abandoned it due to the loss of telemetry during the entry of the stage into the atmosphere. As a result, she splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
After conducting a technical analysis of the splashed down stages, Rocket Lab specialists came to the conclusion that the sea water as a whole did not affect the components of rocket technology, so now the helicopter can not be used, but simply lower the stages by parachute into the ocean, and then tow them to the repair and diagnostic shop companies.
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