Rocket Lab targets 12 HASTE hypersonic tests as US pushes faster weapons development
From the Space digest for 2026-10-14
What happened: A separate October 13–14 item (published ~12:20 AM ET October 14) reports Rocket Lab targeting 12 hypersonic test flights with HASTE — the suborbital version of Electron, which carries test payloads at speeds above 7.5 kilometers per second — against a US push for faster weapons development. Same-day relay coverage (published ~8:20 AM ET October 14) puts the plan at 12 hypersonic tests in 2026 and names the on-record source: Brian Rogers, Rocket Lab's Vice President of Global Launch Services.
What's genuinely new: A debut storyline. The existing Rocket Lab thread record covers Electron, Neutron, Iridium and valuation, but has never carried the HASTE suborbital/defense-testing angle; the 12-test target is a distinct operational detail introduced by this article, and the named-sourced confirmation is the window's incremental layer.
Watch: Whether the 12-test program is booked into the backlog, and whether the defense-testing business line develops its own revenue identity.