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The American company Rocket Lab has revealed that it will attempt to recover the first stage of its Electron rocket during its next mission, the “Return to Sender” launch, scheduled for takeoff in mid-November. The test will see Rocket Lab attempt to return Electron’s first stage to Earth under a parachute system for a controlled water landing prior to collection by a salvage vessel.
Rocket Lab Electron’s 16th launch, the “Return to Sender” mission, will take off from Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. The mission will see Electron deploy 30 payloads to a number of small satellite customers over a 500km solar synchronous orbit, with the recovery attempt a secondary launch target.
Rocket Lab said last summer that, like SpaceX, it had plans to start reusing its rockets, which would significantly reduce the cost of rocket launches. Unlike the SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, which slow its descent and land vertically on land or one of SpaceX’s drone ships at sea, Rocket Lab has planned to let the Electron rocket’s footsteps drop to the ground in a parachute when it has performed its work.
It should be noted that there is a big difference in size between the Rocket Labs Electron rocket, which is 17 meters tall, and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which is 70 meters tall. Electron is designed to provide dedicated orbit revolutions for small satellites. The rocket can carry around 300 kilograms of payload to low Earth orbit for each takeoff of around $ 7 million.
The image above is an illustration of how Rocket Labs intended to land the Electron rocket stage somewhere in the ocean after it was launched from the Rocket Labs missile base in New Zealand.
“Recovering the first phase of a small launch vehicle is uncharted territory. What we are trying to achieve with Electron is an incredibly difficult and complex challenge, but we are willing to pursue to further increase the launch cadence and offer even more frequent launch opportunities to small satellite operators.“Says Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab.”Bringing an entire first stage back intact is the ultimate goal, but the success of this mission really consists in getting more data, particularly on the drug and parachute distribution system. Regardless of the conditions, the stage returns; we will learn a lot from this test and use it to iterate forward for the next attempt. “
If the rocket recovery program is successful, Electron will become the first and only reusable small-scale orbital-class launch system in operation.
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