--- title: "This Startup Is Catching a Rocket With a Flippin’ Helicopter!" description: "Space startup Rocket Lab is getting ready for a truly awe-inspiring and action-packed stunt: catching its Electron rocket mid-air using a massive helicopter." date: "2022-04-05" modified: "2022-04-05" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/startup-catching-rocket-with-helicopter" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "electron rocket" - "Rocket Lab" - "the digest" --- # This Startup Is Catching a Rocket With a Flippin’ Helicopter! ![Space startup Rocket Lab is getting ready for a truly awe-inspiring and action-packed stunt: catching its Electron rocket mid-air using a massive helicopter.]() *\Image: Rocket Lab\* ## Helicopter Recovery Space startup Rocket Lab is getting ready for a truly awe-inspiring stunt: catching its Electron rocket mid-air using a massive helicopter — an exciting new step, if they can pull it off, on the long road to make rockets fully reusable. The company is hoping to launch 34 different commercial payloads in a single launch from a facility in New Zealand. The rocket's first stage will then make its return before being scooped up by a customized Sikorsky S-92 twin engine helicopter. The chopper model is conventionally used in offshore oil and gas transport as well as search and rescue missions, according to a [press release](). ## Aligning Stars It's a daring stunt and the stars will have to align for it all to work. "We’ve conducted many successful helicopter captures with replica stages, carried out extensive parachute tests, and successfully recovered Electron’s first stage from the ocean during our 16th, 20th, and 22nd missions," said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck, in the release. "Now it’s time to put it all together for the first time and pluck Electron from the skies." After the plummeting first stage deploys its main parachute at an altitude of around 3.7 miles, a helicopter will attempt to catch up with it and capture the stage's parachute via a hook. Or at least, that's the plan. The small startup has experienced a [number of failed launches]() over the last couple of years — after all, who said launching rockets was easy? "Trying to catch a rocket as it falls back to Earth is no easy feat, we’re absolutely threading the needle here," Beck added, "but pushing the limits with such complex operations is in our DNA." **More on rocket launches:** *[Video Shows Lightning Striking NASA's New Moon Rocket]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()