WASHINGTON – Under a veil of secrecy broken only by the firing of the rocket’s engines, Rocket Lab launched the first suborbital variant of its Electron vehicle on June 17.
The vehicle, named Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE), took off at 9:24 p.m. Eastern Time from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. Just under an hour and a half after launch, Rocket Lab issued a statement declaring the launch a success.
“100% mission success since launch tonight,” said Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab. tweeted after the flight. “A perfect flight of the country’s newest hypersonic test platform HASTE.”
Rocket Lab did not disclose the payload on HASTE or other flight details, including peak altitude and speed. The company did not announce the launch in advance and did not provide a webcast. The only advance notice was through airspace restrictions published by the Federal Aviation Administration and a tweet from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, which announced the launch period for a Rocket Lab launch, but said the facility’s visitor center would remain closed to the public.
This 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 made public well in advance. Even missions for US national security clients, such as the National Reconnaissance Office, were announced and broadcast in advance.
Rocket Lab announced HASTE in April and made only minor changes to the standard Electron, such as reinforced structures. The vehicle is designed for payloads of up to 700 kilograms for suborbital tests.
Beck said in an interview shortly after the company announced HASTE that he expected strong demand from the Department of Defense for hypersonic tests and targets. “We can get exact trajectories at a cost and frequency, but also with an accuracy that has never been available before,” he claimed.
Because HASTE is similar to the standard Electron, Rocket Lab says it can achieve greater economies of scale for the vehicle. “The more vehicles we send through the factory, the cheaper they become,” said Beck in April.
Rocket Lab plans to launch HASTE exclusively through Wallops. “Wallops is, at its core, a test and research site that’s perfect for these types of missions,” David Pierce, director of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, said in a statement after launch.
In a May 9 conference call, Rocket Lab forecast a total of 15 Electron launches in 2023, a number that includes both orbital and HASTE missions. The company did not provide any information about the split between the two. This was the sixth Electron launch this year.
Related