Watch Rocket Lab attempt rocket booster catch with helicopter

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Space company Rocket Lab on Monday will attempt to catch the booster of its Electron rocket using a helicopter, in the first full test of its system to reuse rockets.

The company’s Electron rocket is scheduled to liftoff from Rocket Lab’s private launch facility in New Zealand between 6:35 p.m. ET and 8:40 p.m. ET. The primary goal of the mission is to launch 34 small satellites into low Earth orbit for a collection of customers, including Alba Orbital, Astrix Astronautics, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, E-Space, Spaceflight Inc., and Unseenlabs.

But the secondary goal of Rocket Lab’s mission is to use a helicopter to swoop in and catch the Electron booster – the largest and most expensive part of the rocket – so that the company can reuse it on future launches.

Rocket Lab wants to make its rocket boosters reusable, like those of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, but with a very different approach. While SpaceX uses the rocket’s engines to slow down during reentry and deploys wide legs to land on large pads, Rocket Lab uses the atmosphere to slow the rocket before deploying a parachute and attempt to grab it with a helicopter.

The company conducted a variety of tests over the last couple years as it worked on the mid-air recovery concept. Rocket Lab has successfully returned two rocket boosters after its most recent launches, navigating them back through the intense reentry of the Earth’s atmosphere and splashing them down in the Pacific Ocean.

By adding reusability to its boosters, Rocket Lab would both be able to launch more often while simultaneously decreasing the material cost of each mission.

“I think anybody who’s not developing a reusable launch vehicle at this point in time is developing a dead-end product because it’s just so obvious that this is a fundamental approach that has to be baked in from day one,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in November.

Rocket Lab went public in August after merging with a SPAC. Shares of Rocket Lab are down 28% since the stock’s debut as of Monday’s close at $7.46 a share.