Rocket Lab, New Zealand-born launch provider took a step forward to make its launch vehicles reusable today with the safe discharge and recovery of an electron amplifier after successfully bringing its payload into orbit. The image above is the view from the booster to the parachute that brought it down safely.
Reusing the first phase of launch vehicles, namely the booster that carries the payload from the ground to the edge of space, where a second phase takes over, has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of reaching orbit. For decades, these precision machines, which cost millions to produce, were abandoned after use and allowed to break when returned.
SpaceX first demonstrated the recovery of its Falcon 9 rockets in 2015, landing one on a drone ship after several failed attempts with other launches. A used first stage was relaunched for the first time in 2017.
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck announced last year that the company would try its own method of recovering a used booster. Instead of the complex propulsion-controlled landing of the Falcon 9, the booster would descend safely under a parachute and be intercepted and captured by a helicopter before the crash.
Today's mission, however, skipped the helicopter passage because perhaps a bit ambitious for a first attempt. After delivering some 30 satellites and a 3D printed gnome to the edge of the atmosphere, Electron's booster returned to Earth and was tracked to where it crashed about two hours later.
According to a Rocket Lab press release sent after launch, the descent and recovery went exactly as planned:
About two and a half minutes after take-off, at an altitude of about 80 km, Electron's first and second stages separated according to standard mission procedure. Once the engines shut down on Electron's first stage, a reaction control system reoriented the stage 180 degrees to position it at an ideal angle for reentry, allowing it to survive the incredible heat and pressure known as "The Wall "during his descent to Earth. A drogue parachute was deployed to increase resistance and stabilize the first stage during the descent, before a large main parachute was deployed in the final kilometers of descent. The stage fell as expected. The Rocket Lab recovery team will return the stage to the Rocket Lab production complex, where engineers will inspect the stage to collect data that will inform future recovery missions.
"What the team has achieved today in recovering Electron's first leg is no small feat. It took a tremendous effort on the part of many Rocket Lab teams and it is exciting to see the work paid off in a major step towards transforming Electron into a reusable rocket, "Beck said.
The recovery team is securing Electron's first stage and preparing to ship it back to our manufacturing complex. Photos to follow once we have them! https://t.co/LnVAhmvbdo
- Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) November 20, 2020
We will update this post with further developments. You can watch a replay of the launch below.