Blue Origin Manufacturing, LLC has secured a major milestone in aerospace technology with a newly patented system for receiving descending rockets. This innovation focuses on a recently awarded patent, titled ‘Rocket including rotatable arm for engaging a cable during descent and method for the same’. The patent describes a mid-air capture and semisubmersible platform recovery system designed to secure and horizontally position a returning rocket at sea.

Overcoming Rocket Recovery Challenges

Because it is an outstanding invention in the field, this innovation won Swanson Reed’s Patent of the Month for the Aviation, Aerospace, and Space Technology industry in February 2026.

Patent Abstract

Systems and methods for receiving a descending rocket, which may be at sea. The rocket may descend vertically with the nose higher than the nozzle. The rocket body may be angled as it descends. A boom arm with hooks may extend at an angle to the rocket body to engage a cable suspended by a semisubmersible platform at sea. The platform may include a dampened cable and lateral straps for securing and rotating the rocket into a horizontal orientation. The platform may receive a ship and purge water to elevate the platform for placing the horizontal rocket onto the ship.

Meeting U.S. R&D Tax Credit Rules

To qualify for the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit in the United States, an invention must pass the IRS’s Four-Part Test. Here is how Blue Origin’s patent exemplifies these rules:

• Permitted Purpose: The research was undertaken to create a new or improved function and performance. In this case, designing a novel offshore recovery mechanism that improves upon existing vertical landing or drone-ship touchdown methods.
• Technological in Nature: The development process fundamentally relies on the hard sciences, including aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, and fluid dynamics, to calculate trajectories, load-bearing capacities, and sea-state impacts.
• Elimination of Uncertainty: At the project’s onset, there was technical uncertainty regarding how to safely stabilize an angled, descending rocket using a boom arm and a dampened cable without causing structural failure. The R&D was aimed at eliminating this unknown.
• Process of Experimentation: The engineering team would have evaluated multiple alternatives through CAD modeling, aerodynamic simulations, scale-model testing, and physical prototyping to finalize the hook mechanisms and semisubmersible platform design.

3 Practical R&D Applications that Qualify for the Credit

Within the scope of this patent, several specific developmental activities would meet the criteria for R&D tax credits:

1. Prototyping the Rotatable Boom Arm: Designing, building, and physically testing iterations of the boom arm and hook mechanism to ensure it can deploy accurately in real-time and withstand the massive kinetic energy of a descending rocket.
2. Engineering the Platform’s Dampening System: Developing and evaluating the dampened cable and lateral straps on the semisubmersible platform to safely absorb the shock of the “catch” and smoothly rotate the rocket into a horizontal orientation without damaging the fuselage.
3. Simulating the Water-Purging Transfer Mechanism: Formulating and testing the fluid mechanics and structural engineering required for the platform to receive a recovery ship, purge water to elevate itself, and safely transfer the horizontal rocket onto the vessel under varying sea conditions.