Space company Rocket Lab made its first attempt at retrieving a spent rocket section with a helicopter on May 3, catching it in midair off New Zealand but then dropping the booster stage to the ocean after it exhibited unexpected flight characteristics on a longline.Long Beach, California-headquartered Rocket Lab used a former Bristow Group twin-engine, medium-lift Sikorsky S-92A for the retrieval attempt and earlier tests with dummy targets. The S-92A, tail number ZK-HEV, was registered in March to Advanced Flight, a helicopter charter and management company based in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga. It is the only S-92 listed on New Zealand's aircraft registry.The Electron booster lifted off at 10:49 am local time from Pad A at Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula, on the east central coast of New Zealand's North Island. Dubbed "There and Back Again," the commercial rideshare mission successfully put 34 small payloads in low Earth orbit for six separate customers. It was the 26th Electron launch for Rocket Lab, which was founded in 2006 by New Zealand entrepreneur Peter Beck.The first stage separated from the rocket about 2 minutes 30 seconds after launch and descended toward the South Pacific on a parachute. The S-92 crew intercepted the roughly 2,870-lb (1.3-metric ton) spent first stage about 150 nm (280 km) offshore at an altitude around 6,500 ft (2,000 m), and then captured a drogue line on the parachute with its longline hook. The S-92 is certified to carry an 8,000-lb (3.6-t) external load.
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