{"id":272902,"date":"2025-11-20T04:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T04:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/272902\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T04:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T04:35:10","slug":"rocket-lab-launches-hypersonic-test-flight-for-us-military-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/272902\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab launches hypersonic test flight for US military (photo)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"0055ca16-e093-437c-a59d-be863a400214\">Rocket Lab launched its hypersonic test vehicle for the sixth time ever this week.<\/p>\n<p>The <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/rocket-lab-military-hypersonic-test-flight-haste\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/rocket-lab-military-hypersonic-test-flight-haste\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HASTE suborbital rocket<\/a> lifted off Tuesday (Nov. 18) at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) from <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/rocket-lab.html\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/rocket-lab.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rocket Lab<\/a>&#8216;s Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, on a mission for the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and Missile Defense Agency (MDA).<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\" data-url=\"\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"0055ca16-e093-437c-a59d-be863a400214-2\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The launch, which Rocket Lab named &#8220;Prometheus Run,&#8221; was a success, &#8220;advancing national interests in safeguarding the homeland through the testing of advanced technologies for missile defense,&#8221; Rocket Lab wrote in a <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/rocketlabcorp.com\/updates\/rocketlab-haste-diu-mda\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/rocketlabcorp.com\/updates\/rocketlab-haste-diu-mda\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">description of the flight<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Best picks for you<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">View from the pad of our latest launch from LC-2.With HASTE, we&#8217;re proud to be unblocking the hypersonic test bottleneck with regular commercial launches, lowering the cost and increasing the tempo of hypersonic test flights for the U.S. and its allies. pic.twitter.com\/vaSYHrlzpG<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cantworkitout\/status\/1990963644293881928\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cantworkitout\/status\/1990963644293881928\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">November 19, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"775b2591-63cf-4e1c-8ec6-046dc6de11c9\">HASTE is a modified suborbital version of Rocket Lab&#8217;s 59-foot-tall (18 meters) <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/electron-rocket.html\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/electron-rocket.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Electron<\/a> launcher, which gives small satellites dedicated rides to orbit. That lineage is in the newer vehicle&#8217;s name, which is short for &#8220;Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>HASTE debuted in June 2023 and has now flown a total of six times. The rocket serves as a testbed, providing &#8220;reliable, high-cadence flight test opportunities needed to advance hypersonic and suborbital system technology development,&#8221; according to <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/rocketlabcorp.com\/launch\/haste\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/rocketlabcorp.com\/launch\/haste\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rocket Lab&#8217;s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t know much about the technologies that got tested on &#8220;Prometheus Run,&#8221; which isn&#8217;t terribly surprising given that the U.S. military booked the flight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Led by MDA, the mission deployed a government-provided primary payload developed by the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and multiple secondary payloads by federal and industry partners, which tested key technologies for missile defense applications,&#8221; Rocket Lab&#8217;s postflight statement reads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:97.61%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/atr5ribmLjf7cbJVsjVqiC.png\" alt=\"A diamond shaped mission patch with Rocket Lab's name and a rocket on the front.\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/atr5ribmLjf7cbJVsjVqiC.png\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/atr5ribmLjf7cbJVsjVqiC.png\" class=\"expandable\"\/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/atr5ribmLjf7cbJVsjVqiC.png\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"expand-button icon-expand-image icon\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/atr5ribmLjf7cbJVsjVqiC.png\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\"><\/p>\n<p>The mission patch for Rocket Lab&#8217;s &#8220;Prometheus Run&#8221; mission, which launched on the company&#8217;s suborbital HASTE vehicle on Nov. 18, 2025. (Image credit: Rocket Lab)<\/p>\n<p id=\"dc64fa68-3c91-441f-811a-62f4a953407b\">&#8220;Prometheus Run&#8221; launched within 14 months of its booking, the company added \u2014 a pretty quick turnaround for a government-sponsored test flight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Accessing the commercial and non-traditional ecosystem is a key enabler to accelerating progress in the hypersonics community of interest, particularly for closing mission timelines and driving towards mass and affordability,&#8221; Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, director of DIU\u2019s Emerging Technology Portfolio, said in the same statement. &#8220;Working with MDA to demonstrate commercially-focused sub-orbital launch services is a great example of that axiom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab launched its hypersonic test vehicle for the sixth time ever this week. The HASTE suborbital rocket&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-272902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}