Rocket Lab scores $190 million launch deal to test hypersonic tech for US military

Rocket Lab has signed its biggest launch contract to date, raking in $190 million from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The deal is for a total of 20 flights of Rocket Lab's HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) launch vehicle, a suborbital variant of the company's Electron rocket. The contract secures HASTE as the primary test vehicle for a joint program between the DoD and Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division.

That program, known as the Test Resource Management Center Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed 2.0 (TRMC MACH-TB), is designed "to rapidly accelerate hypersonic flight tests and advanced aerospace technologies shaping the future of defense missions," according to a Rocket Lab press release on March 18.

HASTE has completed seven launches since its debut in June 2023. The details for many of those missions remain classified, but nearly all have been in support of entities of the U.S. government, such as the DoD, with a handful of previous MACH-TB program launches already having flown.

"Our expanded partnership with MACH-TB and the Department of War strengthens America's national security and delivers reliable, modern hypersonic capabilities with speed and affordability," Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in the press release. (In September 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order rebranding the DoD the Department of War, but

"Department of Defense" remains the legal name.)

"This latest contract is another proud moment for the team that builds the strength and resiliency of the United States' aerospace efforts," Beck added.

The contract calls for 20 hypersonic test flights aboard HASTE over a period of four years, with the first round of launches "expected to take place within months of contract signing," the press release said.

Hypersonic vehicles travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound, and can be difficult to intercept using traditional defense technology. The U.S. military faces stiff competition in the nascent hypersonic weapons arena, which explains its interest in HASTE: the vehicle allows customers to test hypersonic tech and other gear in the space environment.

The new contract brings Rocket Lab's launch manifest to more than 70 missions currently in line for liftoff. Including a recent HASTE mission, which launched on Feb. 25 carrying the DART AE payload, Rocket Lab has averaged one launch per month so far in 2026, with three Electron launches between January and March, and another expected in the next day or so.