Watch: Helicopter Catches Rocket Falling From Space

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An American company on Monday caught a falling rocket in the air using a helicopter before dropping it into the ocean.

The California-based company Rocket Lab carried out the operation. It was designed to demonstrate a method to make rockets reusable. It took place above the South Pacific off New Zealand.

An Electron rocket successfully launched and sent 34 satellites into orbit. After the deployment, the rocket’s main booster began falling to Earth. The booster’s speed was slowed to about 10 meters per second by a parachute.

The capture method was attempted at about 2,000 meters as the booster fell. The crew used a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter with a long line and hook attached to grab onto the booster’s parachute line.

But about 20 seconds later, sounds of disappointment could be heard from controllers when the pilot let the rocket go.

Here is the video:

The video showed the rocket plunging into the Pacific Ocean after release.

Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck hailed the mission as a success, saying that “almost everything went as per the plan and that the unexpected load issue was a tiny detail that would soon be fixed soon.”

“They got a great catch. They just didn’t like the way the load was feeling,” Beck said of the helicopter crew in a conference call after the launch.

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