SpaceX rival Rocket Lab will launch an ultralight recoverable rocket tomorrow with Valve’s gnome on board
Rocket Lab is following in SpaceX‘s footsteps, determined to return its rockets. The company, which has launch sites in the United States and New Zealand, will attempt to return the first booster stage of one of its Electron rockets to earth for the first time on a mission scheduled for November 20 at 04:44 Moscow time.
After launching several small satellites and one special garden gnome into orbit on a mission dubbed Return to Sender, the first stage will separate and head for a soft landing in the Pacific Ocean using a parachute system. From there, the rocket floating on the water will be taken by the rescue boat.
The return of a rocket by parachute is hardly a new concept. NASA has done this in the recent past. It may not be as impressive as the thrust landing system that SpaceX uses, but it is just a stepping stone to larger plans that involve picking up a used Electron booster in mid-air during descent with a helicopter.
“What we are trying to achieve with Electron is an incredibly complex and complex task, but we are ready to go in this direction to further increase the frequency of launches and provide operators of small satellites with new opportunities, ” said Peter Beck, head and founder of Rocket Lab. (Peter Beck).
By the way, in April Rocket Lab has already successfully demonstrated the capture of the first stage returned to Earth using a helicopter in the air. This prevents damage to the rocket as a result of landing on water and contact with salt water for some time.
“The ultimate goal is to get the entire first stage back intact, but the success of the upcoming mission actually lies in getting more data, especially on the brakes and parachute deployment systems ,” explained Beck. ” Regardless of the conditions in which the stage returns, we will learn a lot from this flight and will use this experience to move on to the next attempt.”
Recall: “Electron” is an ultra-light launch vehicle, created by the New Zealand division of the American private aerospace company Rocket Lab and designed for commercial launches of micro- and nanosatellites. It allows placing a payload weighing up to 150 kg into a sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 500 km or up to 250 kg into low-earth orbit. The launch cost is $ 4.9-6.6 million.
The launch window for the Return to Sender mission from the company’s spaceport in New Zealand opened on November 15, but was postponed several times due to weather conditions. The live broadcast can be viewed right here, it will start half an hour before the launch:
