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The company aims to join Elon Musk’s SpaceX in reusing rocket boosters, which will reduce costs and increase the frequency of launch in orbit.
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By Kenneth Chang
Take a falling rocket and take it to shore. . .
On Tuesday, Rocket Lab, a small company with a small rocket, achieved the first part of that feat in its most recent launch from New Zealand’s east coast.
After putting into orbit a payload of 34 small satellites, the company used a helicopter to catch the worn-out 39-foot-long rocket booster level before it crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
“A beautiful, pretty epic day,” Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s lead executive, said at a news conference hours later. “The difficulty of capturing a level is extreme. “
In the future, Rocket Lab hopes to restore a recovered thruster and then use it for an orbital mission, a feat only one company has accomplished so far: Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
A video broadcast showed a long cable hanging from the helicopter with cloudy skies underneath. Then the thruster gave the impression of being suspended under the parachute.
“Come on, we have a first look,” said Murielle Baker, the rocket lab commentator. The hook at the end of the helicopter cable hooked the parachute rope before the captured thruster went out of sight of the camera.
Applause from the Rocket Lab project showed a successful capture.
However, the company later provided an update that rated the success. Beck said the helicopter pilots reported that the propellant was not suspended under the helicopter in the same way as in the tests and that they released it.
“If the pilots were dissatisfied at some point, that’s what they were told to do,” Mr Beck. Then the scene continued under a parachute at low descent speed and crashed into the ocean. “
A shipment from Rocket Lab pulled the propellant out of the water. Eventually, the company would like the helicopter to bring a propellant brought ashore and saltwater damage.
Mr Beck ruled out the option that it could be reused. “I still expect him to see this vehicle back on the platform,” he said.
Rocket Lab offers the most of its missions with whimsical names. This one titled “There and Back Again”, a nod to the revival of the booster as well as the subtitle of J. R. R. The novel “The Hobbit” through Tolkien. La trilogy of films through Hobbit director Peter Jackson shot in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab’s booster cap is the latest advancement in an industry where rockets were once disposable parts beloved for individual use. Reusing all or part of a detail reduces the burden of delivering payloads in space and can increase launch speed by reducing the number of rockets to be manufactured.
“About eighty percent of rocket prices are in the first stage,” Mr. Beck said in an earlier interview. “So the economy for us is literally good. In fact, it’s worth doing. “
SpaceX pioneered a new era in reusable rockets and now lands the early stages of its Falcon nine rockets and flies them back and forth. -enter the Earth’s atmosphere. SpaceX is designing its next-generation super rocket, Starship, to be completely reusable. Competitors such as Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance, as well as Chinese companies, are also developing rockets that would be at least partially reusable.
NASA’s area shuttles were also partially reusable, but required significant and expensive paints after flight, and never fulfilled their promise of operations similar to those of a commercial aircraft.
For the Falcon 9, the thruster fires several times after it separates from the ground, slowing it down in the direction of an elegant position on a floating platform in the ocean or on a terrestrial site.
Like a much smaller rocket, the Electron will have to use the entire thruster to put the payload into orbit. This ruled out the option of propellant landings such as falcon nine thrusters.
Instead, Rocket Lab engineers discovered a more efficient approach to fuel consumption, adding a formula of propellants that expel fuel without bloodshed to orient the propellant as it falls, and thermal ions from temperatures above 4300 degrees Fahrenheit.
The thruster separated from the current level at an altitude of about 50 miles. It then continued to climb 10 miles before starting to fall, accelerating to 5,200 miles per hour.
“If you don’t have the scene perfectly oriented with the heat shield down, then when the re-entry procedure starts, it will be like a big ball of plasma,” M said. Beck. ” It’s going to tear the scene apart. “
The friction of the environment acted as a brake. About 7 minutes and 40 seconds after takeoff, the thruster’s drop speed was reduced to less than twice the speed of sound. At this point, a small parachute called a drug was deployed, adding additional resistance. A larger main parachute further reduced the retreat at a calmer pace.
Rocket Lab had shown in 3 previous launches that electron thrusters can be just the drop. But during those missions, the thrusters splashed across the ocean and then discarded for examination.
This time, a flying Sikorsky S-92 helicopter encountered the propeller in flight at an altitude of 6,500 feet, dragging a cable with a grappling hook through the line between the drug and the main parachutes.
With almost all of its thruster worn out, the thruster is much lighter than at launch. But it’s still a piece of heavy steel: a cylinder 4 feet in diameter and almost as tall as a 4-story construction and weighing only about 2,200 pounds or a metric. ton.
Beck said he expects the load factor to be resolved with more drop tests. The Sikorsky is capable of lifting up to five metric tons, much more than the weight of the propellant. “It’s a small detail,” he said.
Eventually, Rocket Lab would like to obtain thrusters for a portion of its missions, Mr. Beck. Some missions can’t use a reusable booster because the payloads are too heavy. The additional weight of thrusters, parachutes and thermal coverage reduces payload by 550 pounds to 10-15%.
Other missions have restrictions like an instant launch window or a launch that makes capturing reinforcement a drawback.
The next two electrons aimed at the release platform do not come with the device needed for reinforcement. This comes with the rocket that CAPSTONE will launch, a PRIVATELY funded but privately operated project that will examine a highly elliptical trajectory around the moon to be used through a U. S. lunar area station. UU. de long duration.
But there is Electron with a reusable booster in the plant’s production field that can be used soon, Mr. Beck.
“That surely gave us an overconfidence to continue,” he said.
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