WASHINGTON — Operating under a veil of secrecy pierced only by the ignition of the rocket’s engines, Rocket Lab launched the primary suborbital variant of its Electron vehicle June 17.
The vehicle, called Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE), lifted off from Launch Complex 2 on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, at 9:24 p.m. Eastern. Rocket Lab declared the launch successful in a press release nearly an hour and a half after liftoff.
“100% mission success from tonight’s launch,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, tweeted after the flight. “An ideal flight of the nation’s newest hypersonic test platform HASTE.”
Rocket Lab didn’t disclose the payload on HASTE or other details concerning the flight, including peak altitude and speed. The corporate didn’t announce the launch upfront and didn’t provide a webcast. The one advance notice got here from airspace restrictions published by the Federal Aviation Administration in addition to a tweet from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, which disclosed the launch period for a Rocket Lab launch but said the power’s visitor center can be closed for public viewing.
That level of secrecy is a far cry from previous orbital Electron launches from each Wallops and Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in Latest Zealand, which were publicized well upfront. Even missions for U.S. national security customers, corresponding to the National Reconnaissance Office, were announced upfront and broadcast.
Rocket Lab announced HASTE in April, making only minor modifications to the usual Electron, corresponding to strengthened structures. The vehicle is designed to accommodate payloads of as much as 700 kilograms for suborbital tests.
Beck, in an interview just after the corporate announced HASTE, said he expected strong demand from the Defense Department for hypersonics testing and targets. “We will get exact trajectories at a value and frequency but additionally an accuracy that’s never been available before,” he claimed.
Because HASTE is comparable to the usual Electron, Rocket Lab says it could possibly get greater economies of scale for the vehicle. “The more vehicles we put through the factory, the cheaper they get,” Beck said in April.
Rocket Lab plans to launch HASTE exclusively from Wallops. “Wallops, at its core, is a test and research range perfectly suited to these kinds of missions,” David Pierce, director of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, said in a post-launch statement.
In a May 9 earnings call, Rocket Lab projected 15 Electron launches overall in 2023, a figure that features each orbital and HASTE missions. The corporate didn’t disclose the split between the 2. This was the sixth Electron launch this yr.