Watch | This company captured a falling rocket mid-air after its launch

Rocket Lab USA Inc, a California-based company, captured a falling rocket mid-air after its launch on Tuesday.

Earlier, the rocket had launched 34 satellites from New Zealand at roughly 10:50 a.m. local time (6:50 p.m. Eastern time).

Rocket Lab is trying a novel cost-savings approach to recovering used rockets for multiple missions to space. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's company SpaceX pioneered the industry trend.

For its demonstration, Rocket Lab used parachutes and a long cable hanging from a helicopter that was steered by two pilots over the four-story-tall Electron booster stage.

The company broadcasted its mission to catch a falling rocket with a helicopter on a live stream.

However, the small launch firm's mission was only a partially successful test as it dropped the rocket booster into the Pacific Ocean after catching it.

A Rocket lab spokesperson later confirmed that it had noticed "different load characteristics" than what had been experienced during previous capture tests.

The company's chief executive Peter Beck wrote on Twitter, "The rocket splashed down safely and the ship is loading it now."

"Since we didn't get it this time, we'll learn a bunch and we'll get it the next time, so I'm not super worried," he told news agency Reuters.

He added that the company had planned to pluck a 39-foot-tall (11.9-meters-tall) booster stage from mid-air using a combination of ropes, parachutes and a heatshield.

"If we can use a rocket twice, then we've just doubled our production," Beck said.

After a blank-check merger led by Vector Capital, Rocket Lab went public in 2021 and was valued at $4.1 billion.

Out of the two dozen missions launched by the company, three of them have ended in failures.

Rocket Lab, which launches missions to orbit for a mix of government and commercial customers, is a part of the growing field of small rocket companies also including Astra Space and Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit.

(With inputs from agencies)

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