Race: Drone vs. Rocket. It Was Close!
In an unmanned aviation history first, a drone has raced the orbital class rocket, EcoRocket. The event took place at ARCA’s test facility, on November 12, 2021. The drone was hovering close to the launch silo, during the rocket’s countdown. After the rocket took off, the drone successfully matched the rocket’s climbing speed. After a few seconds though, the rocket’s higher thrust to weight ratio started to make a difference, and the drone couldn’t keep up. We should applaud the drone’s pilot skills, who was the first in unmanned aviation history to race an orbital rocket. EcoRocket is built by ARCA, and will perform its first orbital flight in 2022.