{"id":137860,"date":"2022-04-08T08:02:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T13:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/rocket-lab-to-attempt-first-mid-air-helicopter-capture-of-electron-rocket"},"modified":"2022-04-08T08:02:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T13:02:29","slug":"rocket-lab-to-attempt-first-mid-air-helicopter-capture-of-electron-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/rocket-lab-to-attempt-first-mid-air-helicopter-capture-of-electron-rocket","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab to attempt first mid-air helicopter capture of Electron rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/rocket-lab-to-attempt-first-mid-air-helicopter-capture-of-electron-rocket2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Interesting vehicle.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>New Zealand and U.S.-based aerospace company Rocket Lab announced that during its next Electron launch, a commercial rideshare mission currently scheduled for later this month, the company will attempt a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inceptivemind.com\/rocket-lab-plans-reuse-rockets-catching-helicopter\/8366\/\">mid-air helicopter capture of the Electron launch vehicle<\/a> for the first time. This will further the company\u2019s program to make Electron the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inceptivemind.com\/rocket-lab-reveals-new-details-powerful-neutron-launch-vehicle\/22323\/\">reusable orbital small launch vehicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab\u2019s 26th Electron launch, the \u201cThere and Back Again\u201d mission, has a 14-day launch window scheduled to commence on April 19, 2022. Electron will lift off from Pad A at Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand\u2019s M\u0101hia Peninsula and will carry 34 payloads from different commercial operators to Earth\u2019s low orbit.<\/p>\n<p>When the Electron\u2019s first stage returns from space after launch, a customized Sikorsky S-92 twin-engine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inceptivemind.com\/sbgt1-defiant-helicopter-completed-first-long-endurance-flight\/23931\/\">helicopter<\/a> will be ready to catch it. Around an hour before lift-off, Rocket Lab\u2019s Sikorsky S-92 helicopter will move into position in the capture zone, approximately 150 nautical miles (278 km) off New Zealand\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interesting vehicle. New Zealand and U.S.-based aerospace company Rocket Lab announced that during its next Electron launch, a commercial rideshare mission currently scheduled for later this month, the company will attempt a mid-air helicopter capture of the Electron launch vehicle for the first time. This will further the company\u2019s program to make Electron the first [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}