Rocket Lab has called off the launch of a hypersonic test vehicle for the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, citing “out-of-bounds launch commit criteria.”
The mission, dubbed “That’s Not a Knife,” involves the company’s Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) rocket and was set to lift off from Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia.
HASTE is a modified version of Rocket Lab’s 59-foot (18-meter) Electron rocket designed for suborbital hypersonic assessments.
The vehicle would carry the DART AE, a 10-foot (3-meter) 3D-printed hypersonic unmanned aerial system developed by Australia-based Hypersonix Launch Systems, on its first flight.
Rocket Lab did not announce a new target date.
The Virginia mission would have marked HASTE’s seventh flight and its second for the Defense Innovation Unit.
For HyCAT Program
DART AE supports the Defense Innovation Unit’s ongoing Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT) program, which seeks low-cost capabilities for high-speed flight tests.
Hypersonix won selection in 2023 to develop a HyCAT platform from over 60 applicants and later partnered with Rocket Lab for launch services.
The DART AE
The DART AE vehicle uses Hypersonix’s SPARTAN, a fully 3D-printed, hydrogen-fueled scramjet with no moving parts that draws oxygen from the atmosphere for combustion but requires an external boost to reach operating speed.
With both SPARTAN and HASTE, Hypersonix plans to demonstrate speeds up to Mach 7, a range of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles), and multiple engine restarts.
