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Rocket Lab, Leidos sign contract for 4 rocket launches

California-based Rocket Lab USA has signed a contract with Reston-based Fortune 500 contractor Leidos to launch four Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) missions, the launch company announced Tuesday.

The suborbital testbed launch vehicle missions will lift off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County. They are scheduled during 2024 and 2025.

Leidos selected Rocket Lab for hypersonic test launches under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) contract, which the Naval Surface Warfare Center awarded to a Leidos subsidiary in October 2022. Rocket Lab launched its first HASTE rocket, derived from its Electron rocket, on June 17 for Leidos.

“Our first HASTE mission … successfully demonstrated HASTE’s ability to accelerate the cadence of hypersonic flight testing for the nation,” Brian Rogers, Rocket Lab’s senior director of global launch services, said in a statement. “We’re proud to now follow it up with a series of four additional missions for Leidos to support hypersonic technology innovation and technology maturation.”

Rocket Lab National Security, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary focused on the defense and intelligence communities, operates the HASTE program.

Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron rocket and the Photon satellite platform and is developing the Neutron 13-ton payload class launch vehicle. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, the company has delivered 171 satellites to orbit for private and public organizations. Rocket Lab has two launch pads in New Zealand in addition to its pad in Virginia.

Rocket Lab to launch new hypersonic rocket from Va.

California-based Rocket Lab USA Inc. will launch its new Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) rocket in Accomack County in the first half of 2023.

The company introduced the suborbital testbed launch vehicle, derived from its Electron rocket, on Monday. Rocket Lab is preparing the HASTE vehicle for launch for a confidential customer at its integration and control facility on Wallops Island, according to a news release. The rocket will launch from the company’s Launch Complex 2 within Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, where the aerospace company launched its 60-foot-tall Electron rocket in January, its first launch from U.S. soil.

“Hypersonic and suborbital test capabilities are key priorities for the nation, yet the [Department of Defense’s] ability to test these systems has been limited,” Brian Rogers, Rocket Lab’s senior director of global launch services, said in a statement. “With HASTE, we’ve taken a proven vehicle in Electron and tailored it specifically to deliver highly capable, frequent and cost-effective hypersonic and suborbital test opportunities from our existing launch site in Virginia.”

Rocket Lab announced in February 2022 that it had selected Wallops Island as the location for its launch site and a new manufacturing and assembly complex for its new, reusable Neutron rocket, a move that is expected to bring 250 jobs.

Rocket Lab National Security, a wholly owned subsidiary, will primarily operate HASTE. HASTE will have a payload capacity of up to 1,540 pounds and options to accommodate larger payloads.

Since 2018, the Electron vehicle has deployed satellites for NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Space Force.

Dynetics, an Alabama-based wholly owned subsidiary of Reston-based Leidos Holdings Inc., has selected Rocket Lab to provide hypersonic test launch capability under a Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane division contract announced in October 2022. The Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit has also selected Rocket Lab to prototype hypersonic launch capability on HASTE in its hypersonic and high-cadence testing capabilities (HyCAT) program. In addition, the company completed a study for the Missile Defense Agency’s Targets and Countermeasures Program to evaluate a variety of payloads on HASTE, which could set the stage for future test flights, the company said in a news release.

Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron rocket and the Photon satellite platform and is developing the Neutron 13-ton payload class launch vehicle. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, the company has delivered 159 satellites to orbit for private and public organizations. Rocket Lab has two launch pads in New Zealand in addition to its pad in Virginia.

Rocket Lab launches first mission from U.S. soil

After more than a month’s delay, Rocket Lab USA’s first launch from U.S. soil at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County blasted off Tuesday evening.

The mission, “Virginia is for Launch Lovers,” lifted off around 6 p.m. EST from the company’s Launch Complex 2 at Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within the NASA facility, sending its 60-foot-tall Electron rocket into space, where it successfully deployed three satellites into low Earth orbit for Herndon-based satellite analytics company HawkEye 360.

About 90 seconds after lift off, Electron’s nine Rutherford engines were propelling the rocket at speeds of about 3,000 kilometers per hour, or more than 1,800 miles per hour, according to video of the launch.

The Electron rocket launch from Virginia supplements Rocket Lab’s New Zealand-based Launch Complex 1 from which 31 Electron missions have previously taken off. Combined, the two pads can support more than 130 launch opportunities every year, Rocket Lab said in a news release. Launch Complex 2, which was built for Electron, is expected to support up to 12 missions annually.

“We’re immensely proud to have delivered mission success for HawkEye 360,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. “With Launch Complex 2, we set out to create a new path to orbit from U.S. soil after more than 30 Electron launches from New Zealand, and what could be more fitting for the first Virginia mission than launching a Virginia-built satellite? We couldn’t ask for better mission partners in HawkEye 360 and Virginia Space, and we look forward to many more missions together.”

The mission is the first of three planned with HawkEye 360 through 2024 as the company seeks to boost its ability to collect radio frequency data across the globe and expands its constellation to 18 satellites. HawkEye opened a new, 19,000-square-foot facility in Herndon in July to boost production of its satellites.

“We are happy to report that our Cluster 6 next-generation satellites have reached orbit and we look forward to ramping up operations in the weeks ahead and fully integrating them into our constellation,” HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini said in a statement. “We are grateful for our valued mission partners, Rocket Lab and the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, who worked alongside our fantastic HawkEye 360 team to make this inaugural Virginia launch a success.”

Rocket Lab initially announced in November 2022 that it had established a 13-day launch window in December 2022. That was set following progress by NASA in certifying its Autonomous Flight Termination Unit software, which is required to enable Electron launches from Virginia. The NASA Wallops Flight Facility blamed unfavorable weather conditions and range/airspace availability for delays on its social media.

Electron’s first U.S. launch brings even more visibility to Virginia’s Eastern Shore as well as to the state’s space industry. Rocket Lab announced in February 2022 that it had selected Wallops Island as the location for its launch site and a new manufacturing and assembly complex for its new, reusable Neutron rocket, a move that is expected to bring 250 jobs.

“We are honored to support the launch of this historic mission,” Ted Mercer, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, known as Virginia Space, said in a statement. Virginia Space owns and operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops. “In addition to being Rocket Lab’s first and only U.S. launch location, we will also be building rockets and processing their payload right here in Accomack County — something that has never been done in Virginia. Our partnership with Rocket Lab is a unique opportunity for the commonwealth of Virginia to create long-term economic development opportunities in the form of high-paying jobs, launch viewing tourism, and construction of new facilities on the Eastern Shore.”