CERN - CMS tries out the seesaw

 

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

May 4, 2022

The collaboration has put the seesaw model of neutrino mass to a new test

View of the CMS experiment (Image: CERN)

The CMS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has carried out a new test on a model that was developed to explain the tiny mass of neutrinos, electrically neutral particles that change type as they travel through space.

In the Standard Model of particle physics, the particles that cannot be broken down into smaller constituents, such as quarks and electrons, gain their mass through their interactions with a fundamental field associated with the Higgs boson. The neutrinos are the exception here, however, as this Higgs mechanism cannot explain their mass. Physicists are therefore investigating alternative explanations for the mass of neutrinos.

One popular theoretical explanation is a mechanism that pairs up a known light neutrino with a hypothetical heavy neutrino. In this model, the heavier neutrino plays the part of a larger child on a seesaw, lifting the lighter neutrino to give it a small mass. But, for this seesaw model to work, the neutrinos would need to be Majorana particles, that is, their own antimatter particles.

In its recent study, the CMS team tested the seesaw model by searching for Majorana neutrinos produced through a specific process, called vector-boson fusion, in data from high-energy collisions at the LHC collected by the CMS detector between 2016 and 2018. If they took place, these collision events would result in two muons (heavier versions of the electron) that had the same electric charge, two ‘jets’ of particles that had a large total mass and were wide apart from one another, and no neutrino.

After identifying and subtracting a background of collision events that look almost the same as the sought-after events, the CMS researchers found no signs of Majorana neutrinos in the data. However, they were able to set new bounds on a parameter of the seesaw model that describes the quantum mixing between a known light neutrino and a hypothetical heavy neutrino.

The results include bounds that surpass those obtained in previous LHC searches for a heavy Majorana neutrino with a mass larger than 650 billion electronvolts (GeV), and the first direct limits for a heavy Majorana neutrino that has a mass larger than 2 trillion electronvolts (TeV) and up to 25 TeV.

With the LHC set to be back in collision mode this summer, after a successful restart on 22 April, the CMS team can look forward to collecting more data and trying out the seesaw again.

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 23 Member States.

Related article:

CERN - Large Hadron Collider restarts
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/04/cern-large-hadron-collider-restarts.html

Related links:

Large Hadron Collider (LHC): https://home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider

CMS: https://home.cern/science/experiments/cms

Standard Model: https://home.cern/science/physics/standard-model

Antimatter: https://home.cern/topics/antimatter

CMS collaboration study: http://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/preliminary-results/EXO-21-003/index.html

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: https://home.cern/

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/By Ana Lopes.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

A ‘galaxy’ is unmasked as a pulsar — the brightest outside the Milky Way

 

Astrophysics logo.

May 4, 2022

Using a technique to block certain wavelengths of light, researchers hope to discover many more hidden pulsars.

Image above: The brightest extra-galactic pulsar has been identified in the Large Magellanic Cloud (pictured).Credit: Pennock et al.

Astronomers have confirmed that an object they thought was a distant galaxy is actually the brightest extra-galactic pulsar ever seen. The team made the discovery using a technique that blocks a particular type of polarized light, similar to polarized sunglasses, which could be used to spy more ‘hidden’ pulsars.

Pulsars are highly magnetized spinning neutron stars that form from the collapsed remnants of exploded stars. As pulsars spin, they release a stream of radio waves from their poles — a ‘pulse’ that can be detected using radio telescopes. Astronomers use pulsars to test theories of gravity and to look for evidence of gravitational waves.

The new pulsar, called PSR J0523−7125, is about 50,000 parsecs from Earth, in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and is quite different from most known pulsars. Its pulse is very wide — more than twice the size of other known pulsars in the LMC, and it is exceptionally ‘bright’ on the radio spectrum, says Yuanming Wang, an astrophysicist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Canberra.

Hidden pulsar

A recently identified pulsar is hard to spot in this portion of the Large Magellanic Cloud under normal viewing conditions (sunglasses off). But move the slider and the pulsar becomes clear in the polarized view (sunglasses on). Pulsars are among the few celestial objects that emit circular polarized light.

Animation Credit: Yuanming Wang

Wang and the team say the pulsar is ten times brighter than any other pulsar found outside the Milky Way. Their study is published in The Astrophysical Journal today1.

“Because of its unusual properties, this pulsar was missed by previous studies, despite how bright it is,” said co-author, Tara Murphy, a radio astronomer at the University of Sydney in Australia, in a press release.

New technique

Pulsars are typically identified from their faint pulse, flickering periodically. But in the case of PSR J0523−7125, its pulse is so wide and bright, that it didn’t fit the typical profile of a pulsar and was dismissed as a galaxy.

Wang and an international team of astronomers first suspected the object might be a pulsar in data from the Variables and Slow Transients survey, conducted using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope in Western Australia. The survey looks at a large amount of sky for highly variable radio wave sources, and collects circular polarization, among other data.

Emissions from pulsars are often highly polarized, and some of them oscillate in a circular way. Few space objects are polarized like this, which makes them stand out.

Using a computer programme, the team was able to block out wavelengths of light that were not circularly polarized, revealing the rare type of pulsar. Other telescopes, including the MeerKAT radio-astronomy telescope in South Africa, confirmed their finding (see Hidden pulsar).

“We should expect to find more pulsars using this technique. This is the first time we have been able to search for a pulsar’s polarization in a systematic and routine way,” said Murphy.

Yvette Cendes, a radio astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says that radio astronomy hasn’t been as effective as optical astronomy at finding ‘transient’ objects — space objects like pulsars that come in and out of view. “Surveys like VAST are changing that,” she says.

“But just because you find a transient [object] doesn’t mean it’s easy to figure out what it is,” she says. Polarization data helped to narrow down the source of the object, which suggests the technique has the potential to identify other transients in the future, she says.

Although other telescopes are collecting polarization data, there have only been a few large-scale radio surveys using the circular polarization technique. In March, researchers using data from the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope in the Netherlands found two new pulsars using the technique, which they detailed in a preprint posted on arXiv2.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01226-9

References:

1. Wang, Y. et al. Astrophys. J. https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac61dc (2022).

2. Sobey, C. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.08331 (2022).

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: Nature/Jacinta Bowler.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

LISA mission moves to final design phase

 

ESA - LISA Pathfinder Mission patch.

May 4, 2022

ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) passed an important review that marks the mission as feasible for final technology development and design before adoption.

Two merging black holes

With LISA, ESA aims to fly the first space-based observatory dedicated to studying gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of space-time emitted during the most powerful events in the Universe, such as pairs of supermassive black holes colliding and merging.

Mergers of black holes that have millions of times the mass of the Sun, neutron stars falling into the black holes that sit at the center of many galaxies, and events that took place shortly after the Big Bang all produce very low frequency gravitational waves. These waves are so long that they can only be detected using a space observatory that spans millions of kilometres.

The spectrum of gravitational waves

LISA will be able to do exactly this with its three spacecraft flying in a triangular formation with 2.5-million kilometre-long sides. Gravitational waves from sources throughout the Universe will produce very tiny oscillations in the arm lengths.

In 2017, LISA was selected as one of ESA’s large class missions in the Cosmic Vision Programme. It has now passed through Phase A in the mission lifetime cycle, where the missions’ feasibility was assessed, as well as where the first designs and technologies were developed.

LISA mission timeline (Click on the image for enlarge)

Phase A ended with a comprehensive ‘Mission Formulation Review’. The review team, consisting of experts from ESA, NASA, the scientific community and industry, identified no showstoppers and confirmed that LISA has successfully reached a maturity sufficient to proceed to the next stage of development.

After passing the review, LISA now enters Phase B1, which is where the mission will be refined, all necessary technology will be developed, final designs will be chosen, and international agreements will be set.

Optical bench for LISA

“Transitioning into Phase B1 lifts the mission out of concept studies and marks a major milestone for the involved scientists and engineers,” said ESA’s LISA study manager Martin Gehler. “After a long journey, starting with the first sketches in the 1980s, we now know that we are on track, and that we have a feasible plan forward to adoption.”

During the path towards adoption of the mission – after which the construction phase begins – all crucial components of LISA’s technology are pre-developed by ESA, NASA and the LISA consortium of ESA member states. Examples of these technologies are the laser systems, phasemeters, telescopes, and the gravitational reference sensor.

LISA´s hardware was first successfully tested in space with ESA’s LISA Pathfinder mission. The Pathfinder demonstrated that it’s possible to place and maintain test masses in free-fall to an astonishing level of precision, and that the exquisite measurement devices needed for LISA meets the requirements.

LISA Pathfinder in space

LISA is expected to launch in the mid-2030s, and will work together with ESA’s upcoming Athena mission that will observe the X-ray emission from the clashes of black holes.

“Combining the observing power of two future ESA missions would allow us to study supermassive black hole mergers and their mysterious aftermaths for the first time,” says LISA project scientist Nora Lützgendorf. “First, we will use LISA to detect the gravitational waves and tell us where to look in the sky; then we use Athena to see how the mighty collision affects the gas surrounding the black holes.”

LISA and Athena, together with current and future missions XMM-Newton, Integral, Euclid, Webb and Hubble, will bring ESA to the forefront to shed light on the ‘dark’, energetic and early Universe.

Related links:

Cosmic Vision Programme: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/ESA_s_Cosmic_Vision

ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA): https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/LISA_factsheet

Athena: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Athena_factsheet

XMM-Newton: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/XMM-Newton_overview

Integral: https://sci.esa.int/web/integral%20

Euclid: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid_overview

Hubble Space Telescope (HST): https://esahubble.org/%20

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/C.Carreau/University of Glasgow.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Mission Managers Continue Planning Crew Dragon Departure

 

ISS - Expedition 67 Mission patch.

May 3, 2022

NASA and SpaceX managers continue to plan for the departure of four commercial crew astronauts aboard the International Space Station this week. A change of command is also on tap as the 11 orbital residents transition to a seven-member crew before the end of the week.

NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer are nearing the end of their space research mission that began in November. The quartet will first see Marshburn hand over station command to Roscosmos Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev who will lead Expedition 67 until late summer. The following day, the four astronauts will enter the SpaceX Dragon Endurance, undock from the Harmony module’s forward port, then splashdown off the coast of Florida about 24 hours later.

Image above: Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Kayla Barron and Jessica Watkins, both from NASA, and Samantha Cristoforetti from ESA (European Space Agency) are pictured check out systems inside the Kibo laboratory module. Image Credit: NASA.

The four departing astronauts have been handing over their responsibilities to the station’s newest quartet that arrived on April 27 aboard the Dragon Freedom. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins with Samantha Cristoforetti from ESA are in the first week of a four-and-a-half-month research mission on the orbiting lab.

Flight Engineers Hines and Watkins partnered once again inside the Columbus laboratory module exploring how microgravity affects their dexterous manipulation. Lindgren worked on cargo operations inside the Cygnus space freighter then took a robotics test that measures behavioral conditions during spaceflight. Cristoforetti worked on exercise machine components and spent time on station familiarization activities.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

Over in the Russian segment of the station, Artemyev took turns with Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov working out for a study exploring ways to maximize the effectiveness of exercise in weightlessness. Flight Engineer Denis Matveev worked on resupply activities inside the ISS Progress 80 cargo craft before cleaning ventilation systems.

Related links:

Expedition 67: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition67/index.html

Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony

Columbus laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/europe-columbus-laboratory

Dexterous manipulation: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1188

Behavioral conditions: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7537

Exercise machine components: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=973

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Goddard Scientists Begin Studying 50-year-old Frozen Apollo 17 Samples

 

NASA - Apollo 17 Mission patch.

May 3, 2022

Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recently received samples of the lunar surface that have been curated in a freezer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston since Apollo 17 astronauts returned them to Earth in December 1972.

This research is part of the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program, or ANGSA, an effort to study the samples returned from the Apollo Program in advance of the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon’s South Pole.

Unboxing Apollo Samples

Video above: Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recently received samples of the lunar surface that have been curated in a freezer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston since Apollo 17 astronauts returned them to Earth in December 1972. Video Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

However, the process of getting the samples from Johnson to researchers at Goddard – as well as researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and the University of Arizona, Tucson – wasn’t simple. It’s a process that began more than four years ago when NASA’s Julie Mitchell and her Artemis curation team at Johnson began designing and retrofitting a facility to process the frozen Apollo 17 samples. This was a new approach and scientists were excited to employ a technique that could be applied to future lunar missions.

Image above: A frozen Apollo 17 sample being processed inside a nitrogen-purged glove box at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The sample is one of many being studied as part of the ANGSA program. Image Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz.

“We started this in early 2018 and there’s been a lot of technical challenges that we’ve had to overcome to get to this point,” said Mitchell. “This was seen as a practice run for preparing a facility for future cold sample processing.”

“By doing this work we're not just facilitating Artemis exploration, but we're facilitating future sample return and human exploration into the rest of the solar system,” Mitchell added. “I feel very privileged to contribute in this small way by developing the capabilities for us to collect these materials, bring them home safely, and curate them for the long term.”

Once the facility was ready, Ryan Zeigler, Apollo sample curator in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at Johnson, and his team had to adapt to the unique conditions designed by Mitchell’s team to keep the samples frozen during processing, which included decreased visibility due to frost and challenges manipulating the samples while working with thick gloves in a nitrogen-purged glove box, all of which took place inside a walk-in freezer maintained at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 C). Being able to keep samples frozen will be important for Artemis as astronauts potentially return ice samples from the Moon’s South Pole.

“Everything we do involves a lot of logistics and a lot of infrastructure, but adding the cold makes it a lot harder,” said Zeigler. “It’s an important learning lesson for Artemis, as being able to process samples in the cold will be even more important for the Artemis mission than it is for Apollo. This work gives us some lessons learned and a good feed forward for Artemis.”

Once the frozen samples were processed and subdivided at Johnson by lunar sample processor Jeremy Kent, the samples were then express shipped in a cooler with dry ice, immediately opened at Goddard, and stored in a secure freezer. For the scientists now working with the treasures, there's something special about receiving samples that haven't been investigated in nearly five decades.

Image above: Three ARES scientists process frozen Apollo 17 samples inside a walk-in freezer maintained at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 C). Beneath the laboratory gown, they don parkas, gloves, and hats to keep warm. Image Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz.

Jamie Elsila, a research scientist in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory at Goddard, is focusing on the study of small, volatile organic compounds for her research and analysis of the sample. Previous research showed that some lunar samples contain amino acids, which are essential to life on Earth. Her team wants to understand their origin and distribution in the solar system.  

“We think some of the amino acids in the lunar soils may have formed from precursor molecules, which are smaller, more volatile compounds such as formaldehyde or hydrogen cyanide,” said Elsila. “Our research goal is to identify and quantify these small organic volatile compounds, as well as any amino acids, and to use the data to understand the prebiotic organic chemistry of the Moon.”

Natalie Curran, principal investigator for the Mid Atlantic Noble Gas Research Lab at Goddard, focuses on understanding the history that the samples may have experienced during their lifetime on the Moon. The surface of the Moon is a harsh environment and unlike the Earth, it doesn’t have an atmosphere to protect it from exposure to space.

“Our work allows us to use noble gases, such as argon, helium, neon, and xenon, to measure the duration a sample has been exposed to cosmic rays, and this can help us understand the history of that sample,” said Curran. “Cosmic rays can be damaging to organic material that may be in a sample, so understanding the duration helps to determine the effects that exposure has had on the organic.”

Both Elsila and Curran are in possession of frozen and non-frozen lunar samples. When these samples were brought to Earth, a portion was stored at room temperature and another portion was frozen, allowing for comparison between the two groups. Scientists will analyze both sets of samples to ascertain if there are differences in the organic content. Understanding any variations caused by the different curation methods might inform future decisions about how to store samples returned by Artemis astronauts, part of what the ARES team at Johnson will be doing.

For Elsila, “it’s very cool to think about all the work that went into collecting the samples on the Moon and then all the forethought and care that went into preserving them for us to be able to analyze at this time,” she noted.

As for Curran, “when you think of how these samples have come from another world, how far they have travelled and the solar system history they have preserved inside of them, it always blows my mind,” she added.

Learn more about how NASA studies Apollo samples and other celestial bodies at:

https://ares.jsc.nasa.gov

Related links:

Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program (ANGSA): https://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/apollo-next-generation-sample-analysis-program/

Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES): https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/astromaterials

Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory: https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/691/analytical/

Apollo 17: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo-17

Earth's Moon: http://www.nasa.gov/moon

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC): https://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Johnson Space Center (JSC): https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/index.html

Artemis: http://www.nasa.gov/artemis

Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Bill Steigerwald/GSFC/Nancy Jones/JSC/Anna Lassmann.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Visualization Rounds Up the Best-Known Black Hole Systems

 

ISS - NICER - SEXTANT Mission patch.

May 3, 2022

Nearby black holes and their stellar companions form an astrophysical rogues’ gallery in this new NASA visualization.

Animation above: Several visualized black hole systems, including Cygnus X-1 and GRS 1915, fly past in this fanciful animation. Animation Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Scientific Visualization Studio.

Stars born with more than about 20 times the Sun’s mass end their lives as black holes. As the name implies, black holes don’t glow on their own because nothing can escape them, not even light. Until 2015, when astronomers first detected merging black holes through the space-time ripples called gravitational waves, the main way to find these ebony enigmas was to search for them in binary systems where they interacted with companion stars. And the best way to do that was to look in X-rays.

NASA's Black Hole Orrery

Video above: Learn more about the best-known black hole systems in our galaxy and its neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This visualization presents 22 X-ray binary systems that host confirmed black holes, all shown at the same scale and with their orbits sped up by about 22,000 times. The view of each system reflects how we see it from Earth. Star colors ranging from blue-white to reddish represent temperatures from 5 times hotter to 45% cooler than our Sun. In most of these systems, a stream of matter from the star forms an accretion disk around the black hole. In others, like the famous system called Cygnus X-1, the star produces a hefty outflow that is partly swept up by the black hole’s gravity to form the disk. The accretion disks use a different color scheme because they sport even higher temperatures than the stars. The largest disk shown, belonging to a binary called GRS 1915, spans a distance greater than that separating Mercury from our Sun. The black holes themselves are shown larger than in reality using spheres scaled to reflect their masses. Video Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Scientific Visualization Studio.

This visualization shows 22 X-ray binaries in our Milky Way galaxy and its nearest neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud, that host confirmed stellar-mass black holes. The systems appear at the same physical scale, demonstrating their diversity. Their orbital motion is sped up by nearly 22,000 times, and the viewing angles replicate how we see them from Earth.

When paired with a star, a black hole can collect matter in two ways. In many cases, a stream of gas can flow directly from the star to the black hole. In others, such as the first confirmed black hole system, Cygnus X-1, the star produces a dense outflow called a stellar wind, some of which the black hole’s intense gravity gathers up. So far, there’s no clear consensus on which mode is used by GRS 1915, the big system at the center of the visualization.

Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR, or NICER on ISS. Animation Credit: NASA

As it arrives at the black hole, the gas goes into orbit and forms a broad, flattened structure called an accretion disk. GRS 1915’s accretion disk may extend more than 50 million miles (80 million kilometers), greater than the distance separating Mercury from the Sun. Gas in the disk heats up as it slowly spirals inward, glowing in visible, ultraviolet, and finally X-ray light.  

The star colors range from blue-white to reddish, representing temperatures from 5 times hotter to 45% cooler than our Sun. Because the accretion disks reach even higher temperatures, they use a different color scheme.

While the black holes are shown on a scale reflecting their masses, all are depicted much larger than in reality. Cygnus X-1’s black hole weighs about 21 times more than the Sun, but its surface – called its event horizon – spans only about 77 miles (124 kilometers). The oversized spheres also cover up visible distortions that would be produced by the black holes’ gravitational effects.

Related links:

NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR): http://www.nasa.gov/nicer

Swift: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main/index.html

Black Holes: https://www.nasa.gov/black-holes

Animations (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, by Francis Reddy.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Rocket Lab - Electron launches “There And Back Again”

 

Rocket Lab - Electron “There And Back Again” Mission patch.

May 3, 2022

Electron launches “There And Back Again”

Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle launched the “There And Back Again” mission, 34  small satellites to a Sun-synchronous orbit, from Launch Complex 1 Pad A on Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, on 2 May 2022, at 22:49 UTC (3 May, at 10:49 NZST).

Electron launches “There And Back Again” and Electron first stage recovery

The mission is Rocket Lab’s 26th Electron launch overall. For the first time, Rocket Lab successfully completed a mid-air capture of Electron’s first stage as it returns from space using parachutes and a helicopter.

Electron’s first stage as it returns from space using parachute

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck added via tweet: “Incredible catch by the recovery team, can’t begin to explain how hard that catch was and that the pilots got it.

Image above: The company’s Sikorsky S-92 did end up catching Electron, but offloaded the booster into the Pacific moments later.

They did release it after hook up as they were not happy with the way it was flying, but no big deal, the rocket splashed down safely and the ship is loading it now.”

Related article:

Rocket Lab - Bring in the chopper!
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/04/rocket-lab-bring-in-chopper.html

Related link:

Rocket Lab: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/

Credits: Photos and video footage courtesy of Rocket Lab/SciNews/Screen captures, text by Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch