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How to Watch the Rocket Lab Launch Today


Catch a crashed rocket and bring it back to shoreโ€ฆ

On Tuesday (it will still be Monday evening in New York), Rocket Lab, a small company with a small rocket, is aiming to achieve impressive success during its latest launch from New Zealand’s east coast. After the company sends a payload of 34 small satellites into orbit, it will use a helicopter to capture the 39-foot-long used booster stage of the rocket before it splashes into the Pacific Ocean.

If the booster is in good shape, Rocket Lab can recondition the vehicle and then use it for another orbital launch, a feat so far only achieved by one company, Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Here’s what you need to know.

The launch is currently scheduled for 18:41 Eastern time. Rocket Lab will livestream video of the mission on YouTube channelor you can watch it in the embedded player above. The broadcast is scheduled to begin approximately 20 minutes before the launch.

In the space launch industry, rockets used to be expensive, disposable disposables. Reusing them helps lower the cost of carrying payloads into space and can speed up launch speed by reducing the number of rockets that need to be produced.

“Eighty percent of the cost of the entire rocket is in this early stage, both in terms of materials and labor,” Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, said in an interview Friday.

SpaceX has ushered in a new era in reusable rockets and is now regularly landing the first stages of its Falcon 9 rockets and flying them over and over again. The second stages of Falcon 9 (as well as Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket) are still firing, typically burning up as they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. SpaceX’s next-generation super rocket, called Starship, will be completely reusable. Rivals like Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance are developing rockets that can be at least partially reusable, like companies in China.

NASA’s space shuttles were also partially reusable, but required extensive and expensive work after each flight, and aircraft-like operations never lived up to their promise.

After launch, the booster will separate from the second stage of the Electron rocket at an altitude of about 50 miles, reaching speeds of 5,200 miles per hour on landing.

A propellant system that expels cold gas will guide the booster as it falls, and thermal protection will protect it from temperatures exceeding 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

The friction of the atmosphere will act as a brake. About 7 minutes, 40 seconds after takeoff, the booster’s fall speed will drop below twice the speed of sound. At this point, a small parachute called a drogue opens and adds additional drag. A larger main parachute then slows the booster to a slower speed.

A Sikorsky S-92 helicopter hovering in the area at an altitude of 5,000 to 10,000 feet will rendezvous with the booster in mid-air and pull a string with a grapple hook along the line between the drogue and the main parachutes.

After capturing the booster, the helicopter will transport it back to a Rocket Lab ship or to land.



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