Rocket Lab will launch four HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) missions for Leidos in 2024 and 2025. All four missions will launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 at Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

Rocket Lab was selected by Leidos to provide hypersonic test launch capabilities with HASTE under the MACH-TB project. The project was awarded by Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane through the Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (S2MARTS) Other Transaction Authority (OTA) vehicle on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center (TRMC).

Rocket Lab launched the first HASTE mission on 17 June 2023 for Leidos under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) program.

Rocket Lab’s HASTE suborbital launch vehicle is derived from the Company’s Electron rocket but has been modified to support hypersonic payload deployment. By leveraging the heritage of Rocket Lab’s low-cost Electron – the world’s most frequently launched commercial small launch vehicle – HASTE offers true commercial testing capability at a fraction of the cost of current full-scale tests.

Courtesy of Rocket Lab.

Designed, manufactured, and launched by Rocket Lab, Electron is a two-stage launch vehicle powered by liquid oxygen (LOx) and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1). By incorporating an orbital transfer vehicle stage (Kick Stage) that can deploy multiple payloads to unique orbits on the same mission, Electron can support dedicated missions and rideshares.

Specs

Height: 18 meters (59 feet)

Diameter: 1.2 meters (4 feet)

Payload Capacity: Up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds) to low Earth orbit (LEO)

Stages: Two-stage rocket

First Stage Engines: Nine Rutherford engines

Second Stage Engine: One Rutherford engine

Propellant: Liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene (RP-1)

Electron utilizes advanced carbon composite technologies throughout the launch vehicle structures, including all of Electron’s propellant tanks. The carbon-composite construction of Electron decreases mass by as much as 40 percent compared with traditional aluminum launch vehicle structures. Rocket Lab fabricates tanks and other carbon composite structures in-house to improve cost efficiency and drive rapid production.

Technical Specifications

Height: 18 m / 59 ft
Diameter: 1.2 m / 3.9 ft
Stages: 2 + Kick Stage
Wet mass: 13,000 kg / 28,660 lb
Payload to LEO: 300 kg / 661 lb

Electron is powered by the in-house designed and produced additively manufactured Rutherford engines.

First Stage

Electron’s first stage consists of nine sea-level Rutherford engines, linerless common bulkhead tanks for LOx and RP-1, and an interstage.

Rocket Lab’s flagship engine, the 5,600 lbf (24 kN) Rutherford, is an electric pumped LOx/ kerosene engine specifically designed for the Electron launch vehicle. Rutherford adopts an entirely new electric propulsion cycle, making use of brushless DC electric motors and high-performance lithium polymer batteries to drive its propellant pumps. This cuts down on much of the complex turbomachinery typically required for gas generator cycle engines, meaning that the Rutherford is simpler to build than a traditional engine but can achieve 90% efficiency. 130 Rutherford engines have been flown to space on Electron as of July 2020. Rutherford is also the first oxygen/hydrocarbon engine to use additive manufacturing for all primary components, including the regeneratively cooled thrust chamber, injector pumps, and main propellant valves. The Stage 1 and Stage 2 Rutherford engines are identical, with the exception of a larger expansion ratio nozzle for Stage 2 for improved performance in near-vacuum-conditions. All aspects of the Rutherford engines are completely designed in-house and are manufactured directly at our Long Beach headquarters in California, USA.

Second Stage

Electron’s second stage consists of a single vacuum-optimized Rutherford engine, and linerless common bulkhead tanks for LOx and kerosene. With an expanded nozzle, Electron’s second-stage engine produces a thrust of 5,800 lbf and has a specific impulse of 343 sec.

The 1.2 m diameter second stage has approximately 2,000 kg of propellant on board. The Electron Stage 2 has a burn time of approximately five minutes with a Rutherford vacuum engine as it places the Kick Stage into orbit.

High Voltage Batteries (HVBs) batteries provide power to the LOx and kerosene pumps for high-pressure combustion while a pressurant system is used to provide enough pump inlet pressure to safely operate. During the second stage burn, two HVBs power the electric pumps until depletion, when a third HVB takes over for the remainder of the second stage burn. Upon depletion, the first two HVBs are jettisoned from Electron to reduce mass and increase performance in flight.

The engine thrust is directed with electromechanical thrust vector actuators in two axes. Roll control is provided via a cold gas reaction control system (RCS

Kick Stage

Rocket Lab’s Kick Stage offers our customers unmatched flexibility for orbital deployment. The Kick Stage is a third stage of the Electron launch vehicle used to circularize and raise orbits to deploy payloads to unique and precise orbital destinations. The Kick Stage is powered by Rocket Lab’s in-house designed and built Curie engine. In its simplest form, the Kick Stage serves as in-space propulsion to deploy payloads to orbit. It its most advanced configuration the Kick Stage becomes Photon, Rocket Lab’s satellite bus that supports several-year duration missions to LEO, MEO, Lunar, and interplanetary destinations.

Courtesy of Rocket Lab

Located at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 represents a new national launch capability for the United States.

Launch Complex 2 is Rocket Lab’s second launch site for the Electron launch vehicle. It joins Rocket Lab’s first site, Launch Complex 1, located on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula.

In addition to the pad itself, Launch Complex 2 will also be home to an Integration and Control Facility located within the Wallops Research Park for processing payloads and Electron launch vehicles prior to lift-off. The ICF will house multiple Electron launch vehicles for pre-launch integration and will be home to Launch Complex 2 Range Control operations, payload integrations cleanrooms, and administrative offices.

With the launch site now operational, Launch Complex 2 is expected to employ up to 30 people in engineering, launch safety, and administrative positions in the coming year.

Courtesy of Rocket Lab