Operating under a veil of secrecy that is pierced only by the firing of rocket engines, Rocket Lab launched the first suborbital variant of the Electron vehicle on June 17. The machine, called the Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE), was launched at 9:24 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Space Station on Wallops Island, Virginia. Rocket Lab announced the successful launch in a statement about an hour and a half after the launch.

“100% mission success after launch today,” tweeted Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck after the flight. “Perfect Flight of HASTE’s Latest National Hypersonic Test Platform”.

Rocket Lab did not release HASTE’s payload or other flight details, including maximum altitude and speed. The company did not pre-announce the launch or provide a webcast. The only advance notice is from airspace restrictions issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as chirp NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility revealed Rocket Lab’s launch period, but said the facility’s visitor center will be closed to the public.

This level of secrecy is far from both Wallops and previous Electron orbital launches previously announced from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Even missions for US national security clients, such as the National Intelligence Agency, are pre-announced and broadcast.

Rocket Lab announced HASTE in April with only minor changes, such as reinforced structures in the standard Electron. The vehicle is designed to carry a payload of up to 700 kilograms for sub-orbital tests.

In an interview shortly after the company announced HASTE, Beck said he expects a significant request from the Department of Defense for hypersonic tests and targets. “We can achieve accurate trajectories with never-before-seen cost and frequency and accuracy,” he said.

Because HASTE is similar to the standard Electron, Rocket Lab says it can achieve a greater scale effect for the car. “The more vehicles we get out of the factory, the cheaper they get,” Beck said in April.

Rocket Lab plans to launch HASTE exclusively from Wallops. “Wallops, by its very nature, is an ideally suited test and research site for these types of missions,” David Pierce, director of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, said in a statement after the launch. Said.

In its May 9 earnings report, Rocket Lab predicted a total of 15 Electron launches in 2023, including both orbital and HASTE missions. The company does not disclose the gap between the two. This was Electron’s sixth launch this year.