![]() The vehicle is designed to accommodate payloads of up to 700 kilograms for suborbital tests.īeck, in an interview just after the company announced HASTE, said he expected strong demand from the Defense Department for hypersonics testing and targets. Rocket Lab announced HASTE in April, making only minor modifications to the standard Electron, such as strengthened structures. ![]() national security customers, such as the National Reconnaissance Office, were announced in advance and broadcast. That level of secrecy is a far cry from previous orbital Electron launches from both Wallops and Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, which were publicized well in advance. The only advance notice came from airspace restrictions published by the Federal Aviation Administration as well as a tweet from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, which disclosed the launch period for a Rocket Lab launch but said the facility’s visitor center would be closed for public viewing. The company did not announce the launch in advance and did not provide a webcast. Rocket Lab did not disclose the payload on HASTE or other details about the flight, including peak altitude and speed. ![]() “A perfect flight of the nation’s newest hypersonic test platform HASTE.” “100% mission success from tonight’s launch,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, tweeted after the flight. Rocket Lab declared the launch a success in a statement nearly an hour and a half after liftoff. The vehicle, called Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE), lifted off from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, at 9:24 p.m. WASHINGTON - Operating under a veil of secrecy pierced only by the ignition of the rocket’s engines, Rocket Lab launched the first suborbital variant of its Electron vehicle June 17.
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