Operating under a veil of secrecy pierced only by the ignition of the rocket’s engines, Rocket Lab launched the first suborbital Electron June 17.

Rocket Lab launched a suborbital variant of Electron from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. The variant, called Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE), was successfully launched but there weren’t any details or webcast available, however it’s mentioned that HASTE is likely intended for defense-related research:

Beck, in an interview just after the company announced HASTE, said he expected strong demand from the Defense Department for hypersonics testing and targets.