4 ms·

While you are probably technically right, I think you are over estimating the risks involved. The booster will be under a parachute, travelling relatively slowl

While you are probably technically right, I think you are over estimating the risks involved. The booster will be under a parachute, travelling relatively slowly, and there will clearly be many safety precautions and features involved. They will certainly have a stringent check list before proceeding with the attempt as well as some sort of fail safe cutting of the lies if something goes wrong. I would expect the chance of a serious accident to be very low. Also keep in mind these sort of mid air captures were well practiced by the US during the Cold War to capture returning photographic film from spy satellites. Although that was with airplanes not helicopters. A variation of it is actually shown at the end of James Bond Thunderball where he and the girl are rescued from a life raft via a balloon and capturing plane.

scoopertrooper 5y ago
Low as it may be, it seems like an unreasonable risk, given the recent advancements in pilotless (and remotely piloted) aircraft.
marcosdumay 5y ago
Helicopters bring more risks than airplanes. Helicopters with external attachments are notoriously risky (for aviation standards). Helicopters with external attachments that bring momentum independently of the main vessel are the kind of thing that looks way too risky. An airplane would probably cope much better. And even then, the fact that the military do something is not a good reason to expect it to be viable for civilian use. Military applications tend to accept much more risks.
- moralestapia 5y ago
  >An airplane would probably cope much better. LOL. Yeah sure, so the plan is to have something traveling at 800kph somehow intercept a falling rocket stage, catching it in a web or whatever and start dragging it along and somehow land safely afterwards? Thanks man, you made my day :D
  - Rebelgecko 5y ago
    C-130s (like the planes that were used for retrieving objects dropped from satellites) are fine flying at 200kph, no need to max out their speed.
    - refulgentis 5y ago
      To their point, I'm not sure how well a carefully controlled slow descent and catch interplays with an object that can never be in place, in fact, it needs to be at 200 kph. Sounds much less safe.
      - mulmen 5y ago
        It works great. This story isn’t notable for the recovery method. It is notable because of what is being recovered (a reusable rocket booster).
        refulgentis 5y ago
        No, it doesn't. Lol.
    - marcosdumay 5y ago
      From wikipedia, it can land on as low as 120km/h. (That thing can be really slow, it's impressive.) Still, I expect an empty second stage rocket to weight little enough that one can get by with a smaller plane, that can fly slowly due to its little weight, instead of sheer engineering feat.
  - mulmen 5y ago
    The first mid-air recovery of CORONA spy satellite film canisters by a C-119 Flying Boxcar fixed-wing aircraft was performed in 1960. This is a well understood capability. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverer_14 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverer_14
- Taniwha 5y ago
  Remember that they've already been practising this for months - it's not a first time thing - by now they likely know and understand the risks well (Also NZ is full of helicopter pilots who work doing "deer recovery", snatching animals with shotgun-nets, hanging them under helos and pulling them off of near vertical mountain ridges - grabbing something under a chute is likely easy in comparison)
Someone 5y ago
The variation is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery...
- HideousKojima 5y ago
  Which also plays a major role in Metal Gear Solid V (and MGS: Peacewalker)
Someone 5y ago
I can’t find its empty weight online easily, but this booster is quite a bit heavier than these film canisters were. I would be concerned about the impact catching it would have on the helicopter. I guess the hook they use for catching it must be hanging from a somewhat line that deforms on impact, becoming longer while absorbing lots of energy. You don’t want this behaving like a heavy bungee jumper under your helicopter.
- thinkcontext 5y ago
  They've caught multiple mockups that were dropped.

scoopertrooper 5y ago

Low as it may be, it seems like an unreasonable risk, given the recent advancements in pilotless (and remotely piloted) aircraft.

marcosdumay 5y ago

Helicopters bring more risks than airplanes. Helicopters with external attachments are notoriously risky (for aviation standards). Helicopters with external attachments that bring momentum independently of the main vessel are the kind of thing that looks way too risky. An airplane would probably cope much better. And even then, the fact that the military do something is not a good reason to expect it to be viable for civilian use. Military applications tend to accept much more risks.

moralestapia 5y ago
>An airplane would probably cope much better. LOL. Yeah sure, so the plan is to have something traveling at 800kph somehow intercept a falling rocket stage, catching it in a web or whatever and start dragging it along and somehow land safely afterwards? Thanks man, you made my day :D
- Rebelgecko 5y ago
  C-130s (like the planes that were used for retrieving objects dropped from satellites) are fine flying at 200kph, no need to max out their speed.
  - refulgentis 5y ago
    To their point, I'm not sure how well a carefully controlled slow descent and catch interplays with an object that can never be in place, in fact, it needs to be at 200 kph. Sounds much less safe.
    - mulmen 5y ago
      It works great. This story isn’t notable for the recovery method. It is notable because of what is being recovered (a reusable rocket booster).
      - refulgentis 5y ago
        No, it doesn't. Lol.
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    From wikipedia, it can land on as low as 120km/h. (That thing can be really slow, it's impressive.) Still, I expect an empty second stage rocket to weight little enough that one can get by with a smaller plane, that can fly slowly due to its little weight, instead of sheer engineering feat.
- mulmen 5y ago
  The first mid-air recovery of CORONA spy satellite film canisters by a C-119 Flying Boxcar fixed-wing aircraft was performed in 1960. This is a well understood capability. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverer_14 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverer_14
Taniwha 5y ago
Remember that they've already been practising this for months - it's not a first time thing - by now they likely know and understand the risks well (Also NZ is full of helicopter pilots who work doing "deer recovery", snatching animals with shotgun-nets, hanging them under helos and pulling them off of near vertical mountain ridges - grabbing something under a chute is likely easy in comparison)

Someone 5y ago

The variation is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery...

HideousKojima 5y ago
Which also plays a major role in Metal Gear Solid V (and MGS: Peacewalker)

Someone 5y ago

I can’t find its empty weight online easily, but this booster is quite a bit heavier than these film canisters were. I would be concerned about the impact catching it would have on the helicopter. I guess the hook they use for catching it must be hanging from a somewhat line that deforms on impact, becoming longer while absorbing lots of energy. You don’t want this behaving like a heavy bungee jumper under your helicopter.

thinkcontext 5y ago
They've caught multiple mockups that were dropped.