The U.S. military just bought 20 rides on a rocket that never reaches orbit, and the flights could begin within months. Rocket Lab announced a $190 million contract March 18 to launch hypersonic test missions for the Department of Defense over the next four years.
The vehicle is called HASTE, short for Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron. It takes the company’s workhorse Electron rocket, strips out the parts needed to reach orbit, and repurposes the rest to scream through the upper atmosphere at speeds faster than Mach 5. The contract makes HASTE the primary launch platform for the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed 2.0 program, or MACH-TB.
Rocket Lab has already flown HASTE seven times since its debut. Nearly every mission served a U.S. government customer, and most details remain classified. The new agreement covers 20 dedicated flights, the company’s largest single launch award to date.
Stripping Down a Rocket to Go Fast, Not Far
HASTE borrows heavily from Electron. Same carbon composite structure. Same Rutherford engines, printed in three dimensions and burning liquid propellant. What changes is the upper stage, redesigned to fling payloads into hypersonic flight corridors rather than circular parking orbits.
The modifications let HASTE carry up to 700 kilograms while flying custom trajectories suited for aerodynamic testing. Engineers can also swap in larger fairings if a payload demands extra room. Launches happen from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
The suborbital approach matters because traditional hypersonic testing relies on repurposed missile hardware or large sounding rockets. Both options are scarce. Both are expensive. HASTE offers a smaller, more frequent alternative that fits inside an existing commercial launch operation.
A Test Program Years in the Making
MACH-TB didn’t start with Rocket Lab. Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane awarded the initial test bed contract to Dynetics, a Leidos subsidiary, back in October 2022. That award tasked Dynetics with pulling together commercial launch providers, national laboratories, and defense contractors into a single coordinated network.
Dynetics named more than 20 partners at the time. The list included Kratos Defense, Stratolaunch, Sandia National Laboratories, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Rocket Lab National Security. The new $190 million agreement elevates Rocket Lab from one partner among many to the program’s primary flight provider.
The test bed exists to serve multiple military branches at once. Navy Conventional Prompt Strike, Army Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, Missile Defense Agency, and Air Force hypersonics efforts all draw data from MACH-TB flights. A modular Experimental Glide Body lets different teams swap in their own sensors, materials, or flight hardware without redesigning the whole vehicle each time.
Scramjets and an Australian Connection
Rocket Lab’s hypersonic work extends beyond MACH-TB. The Defense Innovation Unit tapped the company separately for its hypersonic and high-cadence testing capabilities program, known as HyCAT. That effort focuses on flying scramjet-powered payloads aboard HASTE.
One candidate vehicle comes from Hypersonix, an Australian company building DART AE. The acronym stands for Additive Engineering, a nod to the manufacturing methods used in construction. Scramjets gulp air at hypersonic speeds instead of carrying heavy oxidizer tanks, a design that only proves itself in actual flight. The Defense Innovation Unit partnership lets any Defense Department organization order HASTE launches through the unit’s online catalog.
The Missile Defense Agency also completed a study with Rocket Lab to evaluate flying its own payload configurations on HASTE. That work sets up potential future flights supporting missile defense objectives, though no additional contracts have been announced.
Twenty Flights Over Four Years
Rocket Lab’s overall launch manifest now exceeds 70 missions across both orbital and suborbital flights. The company flew three Electron rockets in the first three months of 2026. A HASTE mission carrying the DART AE payload lifted off February 25, Space.com noted in its coverage of the contract.
Hypersonic vehicles present interception problems that slower targets do not. Speeds above Mach 5 compress decision timelines for defenders while complicating tracking and targeting. The Defense Department’s increased flight test cadence reflects a push to field operational weapons that can maneuver unpredictably at those speeds.
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in the March 18 announcement that the partnership “strengthens America’s national security and delivers reliable, modern hypersonic capabilities with speed and affordability.” The 20 flights run over four years. The first launches are expected within months. Rocket Lab trades on Nasdaq under symbol RKLB.
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