New Zealand-founded company Rocket Lab has successfully launched its latest space mission for the US Department of Defence.
The Haste rocket, called “That’s Not A Knife”, lifted off from Wallops Island in Virginia in the US at 1pm today (NZ time) from Launch Complex2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
It was Rocket Lab’s second successful launch of a hypersonic test mission for the US Defence Department’s Defence Innovation Unit, and the seventh Haste rocket launch overall. Rocket Lab said its Haste missions to date have achieved 100% success.
The launch was the company’s third of the year and its 82nd overall.
“Haste” stands for “hypersonic accelerator suborbital test electron”, and the rocket is a suborbital testbed launch vehicle.
Suborbital missions enter space but don’t stay there.
The mission deployed Dart AE, a scramjet-powered aircraft developed by Australian aerospace engineering firm Hypersonix, into a suborbital hypersonic flight environment at several times the speed of sound.
The mission payload for the rocket. Photo / Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab said the work was supporting a critical national priority to advance hypersonic technology for the United States and its allies.
Rocket Lab’s vice-president of global launch services, Brian Rogers, said the launch was another proud moment for the Haste team and a great showcase of the important commercial platform it has become for the Department of Defence.
“Regular and reliable Haste launches are helping to accelerate hypersonic readiness for the nation, and we take pride in providing the foundation to a new era of testing of this critical technology to protect the United States space security,” said Rogers.
Hypersonix chief executive Matt Hill said successfully flying Dart AE in a real hypersonic environment marked a major milestone for the company’s flight test programme and moved it closer to delivering reusable hypersonic capability.
