Rocket Lab Begins Recovery of Electron Vehicle’s Booster; Peter Beck Quoted

Rocket Lab has commenced recovery attempts for the first stage of its Electron rocket after the vehicle launched small satellites to orbit and conducted a parachute landing in the Pacific Ocean, CNET reported Thursday.

Rocket Lab confirmed on Twitter that recovery activities are underway for Electron’s first-stage rocket booster after the splashdown landing.

Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, said in a statement obtained by CNET that the recovery operations are meant to help the company gather data specifically on Electron’s parachute and drogue deployment system.

"Regardless of the condition the stage comes back in, we'll learn a great deal from this test and use it to iterate forward for the next attempt,” he said.

Beck first announced Rocket Lab’s plans to begin the recovery earlier this month.

In April, the company commenced a midair capture test for its rocket stage using helicopter assets.