Rocket Lab’s hypersonic test flights from NASA’s Wallops Island

Rocket Lab is conducting a series of HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) missions from Launch Complex 2 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, flying hypersonic test payloads for the U.S. military. After a scrubbed February 25 attempt to launch a hypersonic scramjet vehicle, the company rescheduled a mid‑week mission nicknamed “That’s Not A Knife,” which subsequently lifted off successfully. These suborbital flights provide a rapid, commercially supplied testbed for emerging hypersonic technologies, underscoring Wallops’ growing role in defense-related launch operations.