Rocket Lab to unveil new retrieval method with next launch

The two-week window for Rocket Lab's next mission, Running Out of Toes, starts next Friday on May 15. Photo / Trevor Mahlmann

Rocket Lab's next mission will see the team attempt to bring a rocket back from space.

With a two-week launch window opening next Friday on May 15, Running Out of Toes, will be Rocket Lab's third mission of 2021.

It will see two satellites launched on behalf of BlackSky, a geospatial intelligence and global monitoring service provider.

It's also the second of three planned ocean splashdown recovery missions, and follows Rocket Lab's Return to Sender mission from November last year.

Design upgrades and new recovery processes have been introduced for this launch to enable Electron to survive the return to Earth at several times the speed of sound and under incredible heat pressure.

In order for Rocket Lab to recover Electron, it will undertake a series of complex manoeuvres designed to enable it to survive the extreme heat and forces of atmospheric re-entry during its descent to the ocean.

Electron will also be equipped with a heat shield and parachute to slow down its descent before landing in the Pacific Ocean.

There, Rocket Lab's recovery team will be stationed with a new retrieval method to recover Electron from the water, the Ocean Recovery Capture Apparatus, or ORCA.

Electron will then be inspected and tests to ensure it can be reused.

Rocket Lab will move into its final phase of the recovery program, a mid-air recovery programme using helicopters, once a third ocean splashdown recovery mission has been completed.

Running Out of Toes is scheduled to launch about 10pm on May 15.

It will be livestreamed on rocketlabusa.com/live-stream