Rocket Lab's Peter Beck, in space access session of the Small Satellite Conference: "We want to put a lot of stuff in orbit, but don't want to be the guy who goes down in history as the one who put a lot of junk in orbit. Deorbit upper stage on average of 4-5 weeks after launch.

The test will see Rocket Lab attempt to bring Electron's first stage back to Earth under a parachute system for a controlled water landing before collection by a recovery vessel.

Confirmation from Mission Control that both the drogue and main parachute on Electron's first stage have deployed successfully!

Splashdown of Electron's first stage confirmed! Recovery ops are underway and we'll bring you more soon.

The view of the main chute from Electron's first stage as it returned to Earth.

Have visual on floating stage.

The recovery crew is securing Electron's first stage and preparing to bring it back via ship to our production complex. Pics to follow once we have them!

Welcome back to Earth Electron!

The "There And Back Again" mission will see Electron deploy 34 satellites to a sun synchronous orbit for a variety of customers including Alba Orbital, Astrix Astronautics, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, E-Space, Spaceflight Inc., and Unseenlabs, and bringing the total number of satellites launched by Electron to 146.

"There And Back Again" is also a recovery mission where, for the first time, Rocket Lab will attempt a midair capture of Electron's first stage as it returns from space using parachutes and a helicopter.

The window opens at 2235hrs on April 29 UTC (1035hrs on April 30 NZST) [6:35 p.m. EDT] and the live webcast will start here approximately 25 minutes before lift-off.

Rocket Lab Update: The weather has improved through the week, but the forecast is showing the best wind and cloud cover conditions a few days from now, so we're targeting no earlier than 1 May UTC / 2 May NZST for launch.

After a busy week of capture testing, and while we wait for weather to improve, we're taking an additional day for final helicopter and recovery system optimization ahead of our first mid-air capture attempt. We're now targeting no earlier than 2 May UTC / 3 May NZST for launch.

Helicopter catch! Stay tuned for more recovery details and payload deployment in around 50 minutes.

After the catch, the helicopter pilot noticed different load characteristics than we've experienced in testing, which of course, you do expect whenever testing in the field for the first time. At his discretion, the pilot offloaded the stage for a successful splashdown, where it has been recovered by our vessel for transport back to our factory.

Incredible catch by the recovery team, can't begin to explain how hard that catch was and that the pilots got it. 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.

Though not a photo in flight or in the water, Peter Beck shared this image of the booster after it was loaded onto the recovery ship.