Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck says Elon Musk is "just a guy," but he is concerned about his apparent disregard for safety.
Video / NZ Herald
Rocket Lab launches are usually hyped and webcast.
But the Kiwi-American company’s June 17 “Haste” launch from Launch Complex 2 in Virginia - revealed overnight - was shrouded in secrecy, with an FAA air restriction notice the only advance warning.
Rocket Lab says the launch was a test flight fora “confidential customer”, but there are strong indications if you comb through its previous filings (keep reading).
No sign-off from MBIE or Cabinet was required. The mission was operated by the firm’s new military and intelligence unit, the US-registered Rocket Lab National Security LLC.
Haste (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) was the company’s first sub-orbital flight, with the Electron rocket modified to carry 700kg, or more than twice its usual payload.
Rockete Lab's June 16 launch from Launch Complex 2, housed inside Nasa's Wallops
Island spaceport in Virginia. Photo / Nasa
While Rocket Lab would not comment on the payload, late last year the firm detailed several military contracts in its pipeline.
Those included an agreement with the US Department of Defense’s Transportation Command - a military logistics agency - to explore how Rocket Lab’s Electron and Neutron rockets could rapidly transport equipment between two points on the planet, and how Photon (Electron’s upper stage, which doubles as a spacecraft) could be used for in-orbit cargo depots and as delivery re-entry vehicles.
That is, a suborbital Electron rocket could be used as a super-fast way to deliver a cargo from a place on one side of the Earth to somewhere on the other side of the planet - without ever going into space.
The description of the June 17 Haste test flight fits that bill - limited as it was. There was no information on the trajectory.
Although outside New Zealand, and the reach of our regulators, the Haste launch was in keeping with NZ’s international alliances.
In February 2022, New Zealand signed a space defence accord with the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France and Australia.
The signatories described themselves as partners in national security space operations, prepared to protect and defend against hostile space activities in accordance with relevant international law.
In a third-quarter 2022 market filing, Rocket Lab detailed the following military contracts.
A deal to supply radiation-hardened solar cells to power three satellites for a global missile warning system that will be bought by Lockheed Martin for the US Space Force, through its New Mexico-based SolAero subsidiary (bought for US$80 million ($128m) in December 2021).
A US$14m contract to supply satellite separation systems to Lockheed Martin, a prime contractor for the US Space Development Agency Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) satellites. That is a Department of Defense project that will, in Rocket Lab’s words, “provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms”. T1TL comprises a mesh network of 126 optically interconnected space vehicles and will form the initial warfighting capability tranche of the NDSA.
Providing guidance software and navigation analysis and mission control support for the Mandrake-2 mission, a Darpa and Space Development Agency project that uses laser links for satellite-to-satellite and satellite-to-ground station communications. A successful 40-minute test between two satellites was carried out mid-year. A global mesh network is on the cards.
An agreement with the US Department of Defense’s Transportation Command - a military logistics agency - to explore how Rocket Lab’s Electron and Neutron rockets could rapidly transport equipment between two points on the planet, and how Photon (Electron’s upper stage, which doubles as a spacecraft) could be used for in-orbit cargo depots and as delivery re-entry vehicles.
The firm earlier said its next-generation Neutron rocket is being bankrolled, in part, by a US$24.3m grant from the United States Space Force (as well as US$45m in grants from Virginia’s state government).
“GPS is the best example. It’s run, owned and operated and maintained by the US Air Force, but we all use it to get to the supermarket,” he previously told the Herald.
Meanwhile, at the June 13-15 Wells Fargo 2023 Industrials Conference in Chicago, Rocket Lab investor relations manager Colin Canfield confirmed Rocket Lab is on track to stage its first Neutron launch next year.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is technology editor and a senior business writer.
