Rocket Lab HASTE: the hypersonic test-flight business
- The thread: Rocket Lab's HASTE — the Electron-derived hypersonic test-flight service — as a named line of the company's business (claimed 12 test flights); the record's RL threads (backlog, Neutron, Iridium) are launch-vehicle/customer threads; this is the specialized-services lane.
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2026-10-14: seeded from the space digest (the 12-flights figure is company-claimed, restated against no standing entry — a prior false-positive restate drop). Watch: HASTE contract announcements, flight counts vs Electron's commercial cadence.
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2026-10-18 (editorial fold): merged the duplicate thread [2026-10-14-rocketlab-haste-hypersonic-tests] — duplicate coverage of the same HASTE story. Its dated entries follow, verbatim:
- 2026-10-14 (first record): Brian Rogers (VP Global Launch Services) says Rocket Lab plans 12 hypersonic tests in 2026; HASTE is the suborbital Electron carrying test payloads at speeds above 7.5 km/s (Kuocoin/Zhitong Finance, ~8:20 AM ET; Futu's Zhitong relay, same minute; MSN version 12:20 AM ET with stock framing). No per-test schedule, customer list, or backlog treatment in the window. Watch: how many of the 12 are booked into commercial backlog, whether HASTE develops its own revenue identity, and the Iridium/Neutron runway that dominates the main RKLB thread. https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/rocket-lab-plans-12-hypersonic-tests-in-2026-to-support-u-s-weapon-development ; https://news.futunn.com/en/post/1001098647/rocket-lab-plans-to-conduct-12-hypersonic-tests-this-year