Rocket Lab Completes Critical Design Review for Victus Haze Mission

Rocket Lab National Security, a Rocket Lab USA subsidiary, has completed its critical design review for Victus Haze, the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s Tactically Responsive Space mission.

The launch services and space systems company said Monday the program aims to showcase its tactically responsive space capabilities.

What Is the Victus Haze Mission?

The $32 million Victus Haze mission, awarded to Rocket Lab in April 2024, is a tactically responsive space mission spearheaded by Space Safari and the Defense Innovation Unit. It aims to demonstrate the company’s ability to design, manufacture, license, launch and operate a spacecraft capable of rendezvous and proximity operations. The Victus Haze mission also aims to highlight 24-hour launch readiness, the capability to track and reach target objects and the identification and characterization of on-orbit threats.

Rocket Lab will utilize its vertically integrated Pioneer spacecraft and Electron rocket for the Space Force SSC mission. It will launch from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.

Brad Clevenger, president and CEO of Rocket Lab National Security, stated, “The ability to build a spacecraft, launch it and operate it all in-house, on a tactically responsive timeline, is incredibly rare, but with our extensive launch heritage and deep vertical integration across space systems, we’re ideally suited to make this mission a success.”