Rocket Lab to capture Electron rockets before they hit sea and reuse them

Wednesday, 7 August 2019

Rocket Lab shows how its rockets could be captured and reused.

Rocket Lab is going 'reusable' with a plan to parachute its Electron rockets to Earth and snag them by helicopter before they fall into the sea, founder and chief executive Peter Beck has announced.

The surprise plan could enable it to increase the frequency of launches and potentially bring down its prices, Beck said.

Speaking at a conference in Utah, Beck admitted he previously said that reusing rockets was something Rocket Lab would never do, and he was having to 'eat his hat'.

But Rocket Lab has been battling to increase its rocket production to meet demand.

Production was 'super hard', Beck said, and reusing boosters could in effect double its capacity.

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'The fundamental reason we are doing this is launch frequency.'

Before it tries snagging its rockets midair by helicopter, 'in the coming year' it will attempt to recover one from the sea after it splashes down and ship it back to its Auckland factory to see if it can be refurbished.

Until now, the only company that has reused rockets is SpaceX, which does that through powered landings of its much larger rockets.

Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck said he was having to 'eat his hat' after changing his mind on reusable rockets.

Beck said there would be lots of challenges, the biggest of which would be getting its rockets through 'the wall' intact, as they re-entered the atmosphere and rapidly decelerated.

'As a budding helicopter pilot' snagging the rockets would be 'super-easy' in comparison, he said.

Rocket Lab announced that it would build a second launchpad in Virginia, last year.

Rocket Lab is headquartered in the US but employs most of its 500 staff in New Zealand and has previously launched 35 satellites from its launch pad on the Māhia Peninsula near Gisborne.

It aims to have a second launch pad ready in Virginia by the end of the year, from which it will conduct less frequent, monthly launches.

Rocket Lab was the first private company to successfully launch a rocket specifically designed to put small and tiny 'nano' satellites into orbit.

It appears to face the prospect of growing competition, including from India where other low-cost options are becoming available.

Space News reported on Tuesday that Rocket Lab customer Spaceflight had bought capacity on a new Indian small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV) scheduled to debut later this year.

Spaceflight buys space on rockets for satellite owners.

Space News quoted Spaceflight chief executive Curt Blake saying the Indian SSLV came at 'an attractive price point' and was a really good size.

Rocket Lab has been attempting to build on its advantages, such as deploying satellites very accurately into orbit.

It is also developing an 'off-the shelf' spacecraft called Photon – effectively the shell of a satellite with communications and a propulsion system – which can launch from its Electron rockets.

Rocket Lab believes Photon will be an attractive option to save 'time and money' for companies that don't want to build their own satellites entirely from scratch.