Jamie Bennet
Rocket Lab USA has unveiled a suborbital testbed launch vehicle it developed based on its flagship Electron reusable small rocket.
The Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron, or HASTE, is scheduled for an inaugural flight from a launch site at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in the first half of this year, the company said Monday.
Since 2018, Electron has been deploying satellites for NASA, the U.S. Space Force, National Reconnaissance Office and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Rocket Labs enhanced Electron’s capabilities to be able to carry up to up to 700 kilograms and feature a modified hypersonic payload deployment.
HASTE has been been chosen by multiple government agencies looking for hypersonic test launch capabilities. Rocket Lab was subcontracted by Leidos subsidiary Dynetics for its Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed project with the Naval Surface Warfare Center.
The company secured an agreement with the Defense Innovation Unit to design a prototype of HASTE for the agency’s hypersonic and high-cadence testing capabilities program.
It also completed a payload study for the Missile Defense Agency’s Targets and Countermeasures program.
