11 June 2026 year from the NASA Wallops Flight Center (Virginia) Rocket Lab launched the HASTE suborbital vehicle (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) as part of a government mission with a classified payload. A few days later, the orbital parameters of the device became publicly available and astronomer Jonathan McDowell recorded it in orbit.
According to Jonathan McDowell, the stages of the rocket were tracked at an altitude of approx 200 kilometers with the angle of inclination of the orbit 40 degrees. For comparison, most manned missions to the International Space Station are launched to an altitude of about 400 kilometers, that is, HASTE was about halfway to the ISS. This device is a modified version of Rocket Lab's Electron rocket. It is designed to fly at hypersonic speeds and is intended for testing technologies in suborbital space.
Orbital data refers only to rocket stages, but not the payload. Jonathan McDowell suggests two scenarios. According to the first, the payload completed a full orbital revolution and burned up in the atmosphere or made a controlled descent. After another, it has made almost a full turn, landed and was picked up in the western part of the USA. In particular, astronomer points to the Utah Test and Training Range in the Utah desert as a possible landing site. This is the site of the US Department of Defense, where hypersonic weapons and other advanced systems are regularly tested.
In response to a request from the popular American technology internet magazine and information portal Gizmodo, the Rocket Lab company assured, that all its launches of objects into orbit are purposeful and well thought out. However, the company refrained from explaining the nature of the payload and mission objectives. Such a position allows us to assume, that this flight was the first planned maneuver of the HASTE rocket in orbit.
Source: https://universemagazine.com