Key Takeaways:
Mission highlight: Rocket Lab boosts US hypersonic research
This week’s highlighted mission is a suborbital flight for a classified U.S. government customer. Rocket Lab is scheduled to launch the Justin mission aboard a variant of its Electron rocket, called Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE). Liftoff is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 30, at 7:45 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 2 (LP-0C) at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The HASTE vehicle is a modified suborbital variant of the reliable Electron rocket, specifically designed to provide high-cadence, affordable test opportunities for the field of hypersonic technology (flight at speeds of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, or greater). The primary purpose of these suborbital flights is to test advanced hardware — such as air-breathing engines, thermal protection systems, and guidance components — for the development of U.S. military hypersonic weapons, including cruise missiles and glide vehicles.
Because HASTE is liquid-fueled, it offers a major advantage over older solid-fueled test rockets, which only provide brief moments of relevant test time. HASTE can have its engine power precisely throttled and the engine nozzle actively steered. This flexibility allows engineers to custom-design complex flight paths — such as a direct injection trajectory (continuous burn), a controlled glide, or a steep re-entry — all tailored to simulate a real weapon’s flight profile. HASTE can deliver payloads weighing up to 1,543 lbs (700 kg) into these custom high-speed paths, preparing them for the intense heat of atmospheric re-entry. The payload identity for the Justin mission remains classified.
Other missions this week
Friday, October 3: A packed day features three launches, starting with a SpaceX doubleheader and concluding with an Amazon Kuiper deployment.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch the Starlink Group 10-59 batch of satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:39 a.m. EDT.
A few hours later, at 9:00 a.m. EDT, another Falcon 9 will launch Starlink Group 11-39 from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The packed day concludes on the East Coast at 11:43 p.m. EDT, when a third Falcon 9 will launch the latest batch of satellites for Amazon’s rival network, Project Kuiper (KF-03), from SLC-40.
Last week’s recap
The week of September 22-28 saw a high-tempo schedule of eleven launches globally, headlined by NASA’s IMAP solar observatory mission launch on Wednesday, September 24 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Activity began Monday with the SpaceX launch of the NROL-48 reconnaissance payload from Vandenberg and a suborbital Electron flight for the Jenna mission from Wallops. Geespace — a subsidiary of Chinese auto manufacturer Geely, launched Geely Constellation Group 06 aboard a Chinarocket Jielong 3 from Chinese coastal waters. The dozen new satellites joined the GEESATCOM satellite constellation, which is currently operational and supporting 340 million communications a day. SpaceX launched Amazon’s Project Kuiper (KA-03) satellites by a ULA Atlas V 551 from Cape Canaveral on Thursday. China concluded the week with two dedicated military/government payloads: the Long March 6A carrying SatNet LEO Group 11 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center and the Long March 2D deploying Shiyan 30 01-02 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Looking ahead
Next week, look for a crewed suborbital flight as Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is scheduled to launch the NS-36 mission from Launch Site One in West Texas on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
