Helicopter catches falling rocket

A helicopter has managed to (briefly) catch a falling rocket in mid-air for the first time – before being forced to drop it in the sea. The daring experiment was carried out by US space company Rocket Lab, whose founder, Peter Beck, called it “a supersonic ballet”. Catching rockets as they fall back to Earth once their fuel is used up could make it easier to reuse them, making space launches cheaper. In this case, the 12-metre-long Electron rocket booster had just been used in a mission that put 34 small satellites into orbit. It used a series of parachutes to slow its fall, then extended a special “capture line” cable to one side, which the helicopter snagged with a hook on the end of a long cable. However, the…

You're reading a preview of

The Week Junior (Digital) - 1 Issue, 335

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.