Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

November 2 (Xinhua)-- US rocket manufacturer Rocket Lab (Rocket Lab) confirmed on Tuesday local time that it plans to make another attempt to capture a primary booster with a helicopter when launching a satellite with its electronic rocket on Friday.

The mission, codenamed "Cat and Mouse Game" (Catch Me If You Can), is the 32nd launch of the company's electronic rocket.

It is reported that the electronic rocket will carry a scientific research satellite of the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) and is scheduled to lift off from launch pad 1B of the Rocket Laboratory launch Center on November 4 international standard time. The satellite on board the rocket, called Atmospheric Glow / Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy (MATS), was originally scheduled to be launched by the Russian rocket. SNSA wants to use the MATS satellite to investigate atmospheric waves to better understand how the earth's upper atmosphere interacts with winds and surface weather.

In the launch mission scheduled for Friday, the Rocket Lab will try to use an improved Sikorsky Smur92 helicopter to capture a rocket booster returning from space in mid-air and bring it back to the Oakland production base. Engineers and technicians will process and evaluate it to see if it can be reused.

The rocket laboratory revealed that about 7 minutes and 20 seconds after take-off, the first parachute of the electronic rocket will unfold, and the rocket's main parachute will then open. Dual parachutes help to reduce the speed of the returning primary booster to 36 kilometers per hour during the descent.

When the first-stage booster of the electronic rocket enters the capture area, the recovery helicopter will hook the parachute through the hook at the end of the long rope to complete the recovery.

In May this year, the Rocket Lab successfully used a helicopter to capture a primary booster for the first time during a launch mission codenamed "return to go" (There And Back Again). But a minute later, the helicopter seemed overwhelmed and was forced to release the primary booster from the cable and crash it into the Pacific Ocean. The transport ship then salvaged the rocket and sent it ashore. The company will follow the same operational concept as the previous mission during the capture phase on Friday, but will try to bring the rocket directly back to base.

Peter Beck, chief executive and founder of Rocket Lab, said: "A few months ago, we first captured rockets with helicopters, confirming that we can achieve our goals with electronic rockets, and we are eager for helicopters to capture rockets again and bring back dry booster for the first time without contact with sea water, further increasing rocket reuse."

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