Rocket Lab is preparing a hypersonic test that could push a reusable vehicle toward Mach 20, a milestone the Pentagon hopes will sharpen U.S. edge in high-speed weapons and defenses. The mission, dubbed “That’s Not A Knife,” will launch a HASTE rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia, carrying Hypersonix’s DART AE scramjet vehicle for the Defense Innovation Unit. If successful, the flight will mark a high-profile step in the Pentagon’s effort to test hypersonic systems more often and at higher speeds.
Mission Overview
The “That’s Not A Knife” mission centers on Rocket Lab’s Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron, or HASTE, which has been adapted from the company’s small orbital launcher to serve as a high-speed testbed. Under a launch services agreement with the Defense Innovation Unit, HASTE is tasked with a “direct inject” deployment, releasing its payload during ascent so the hypersonic vehicle can immediately enter a high-energy trajectory rather than coasting from orbit. Rocket Lab describes this approach as a way to give defense customers a more realistic representation of the conditions hypersonic vehicles will face during operational missions.
Riding on top of HASTE will be Hypersonix’s DART AE, a scramjet-powered hypersonic vehicle built by the Australian startup Hypersonix. Scramjet, or supersonic combustion ramjet, propulsion is designed to compress incoming air at very high speeds and burn fuel within that supersonic airflow, enabling sustained flight at speeds targeted to reach up to Mach 20. The mission’s name, “That’s Not A Knife,” serves as a nod to Hypersonix’s Australian roots while signaling the Pentagon’s intent to push beyond incremental improvements and gather data on aggressive hypersonic performance envelopes.
Launch Details and Timeline
Rocket Lab plans to fly the mission from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 at the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. The site, commonly referred to as MARS, gives the company access to established federal range infrastructure while keeping operations on the U.S. East Coast for Pentagon customers. According to Rocket Lab, the Defense Innovation Unit selected this configuration so the mission could leverage a proven commercial launcher while still operating within a U.S. government-controlled range environment.
The flight will rely on support from the Wallops Range, which NASA describes as providing tracking, telemetry and range safety services for Rocket Lab HASTE missions from Launch Complex 2. NASA’s documentation of earlier HASTE operations from Wallops highlights how the range is set up to monitor vehicle health, collect flight data and enforce safety corridors over the Atlantic. Rocket Lab has signaled a launch window in late February 2024, with the exact timing dependent on weather and range availability, a standard constraint for suborbital tests that must thread tight conditions for winds, visibility and downrange sea state.
Key Players Involved
The launch provider, Rocket Lab, is positioning HASTE as a dedicated hypersonic accelerator for government and commercial customers who need rapid-turnaround flight tests. Built on the company’s Electron platform, HASTE is configured to carry experimental payloads like DART AE and release them under tailored trajectories, a capability Rocket Lab argues can shorten development cycles for advanced weapons and sensor systems. In its announcement of the Defense Innovation Unit agreement, Rocket Lab framed the mission as part of a broader push to offer repeatable, on-demand hypersonic testing services from U.S. soil.
The payload developer, Hypersonix, is an Australian startup that the Pentagon has tapped to provide an airborne hypersonic testing platform through its DART AE vehicle. Reporting on the partnership describes Hypersonix as a small company focused on reusable scramjet technology, with DART AE designed to be both a testbed and a demonstrator for high-speed flight. The customer, the Defense Innovation Unit, is a Pentagon organization that seeks out commercial and international partners to accelerate adoption of emerging technologies, and DIU has publicly cast its work with Rocket Lab and Hypersonix as a way to inject startup-style speed into U.S. hypersonic programs.
Hypersonic Technology Context
Scramjet propulsion, like that used on DART AE, differs from traditional rocket engines by breathing air rather than carrying oxidizer on board. At speeds above Mach 5, the vehicle’s forward motion compresses incoming air, which is then mixed with fuel and burned while still moving at supersonic velocity through the engine. This approach can, in theory, sustain flight at speeds that range from greater than Mach 5 up toward the Mach 20 performance targeted for the “That’s Not A Knife” mission, although maintaining stable combustion and structural integrity at those speeds has been one of the hardest engineering challenges in hypersonics.
The Pentagon’s interest in such vehicles is reflected in its broader MACH-TB effort, where the Department of Defense has highlighted the value of reusable hypersonic test vehicles. In a recent release, the department said the MACH-TB program is designed to demonstrate reusability of hypersonic test vehicles at speeds above Mach 5 and to increase the frequency of flight tests. The Navy’s NSWC Crane division awarded the MACH-TB contract to Leidos through the S2MARTS other transaction agreement, and Leidos in turn selected Stratolaunch to provide flight services, illustrating a contracting chain that leans heavily on commercial providers. The HASTE mission for the Defense Innovation Unit fits into this pattern of using private launch systems and startup-built vehicles to gather more data at lower cost.
Strategic Importance for Defense
For the Pentagon, hypersonic test flights are not just technology demonstrations but steps toward potential rapid global strike and advanced defense capabilities. High-speed vehicles that can maneuver at greater than Mach 5 are seen as one way to complicate adversary missile defenses, and tests like the “That’s Not A Knife” mission give U.S. planners real-world data on how such systems behave under stress. Coverage of the Defense Innovation Unit’s work with companies like Hypersonix has emphasized that the department wants more frequent, instrumented flights to validate models and refine designs rather than relying solely on simulations.
Analysts tracking the Pentagon’s outreach to startups argue that this approach could help the United States respond to hypersonic advances by other powers. Reporting on the department’s broader innovation push notes that the embrace of startups may fuel faster progress in hypersonic technology by bringing in agile firms that can iterate quickly. In that context, the partnership among Rocket Lab, Hypersonix and the Defense Innovation Unit is seen as a test case for whether smaller companies can deliver the kinds of high-speed, reusable platforms that larger defense primes have struggled to field at scale.
Challenges and Uncertainties
Despite the ambitious target of reaching up to Mach 20, there is limited public evidence that the “That’s Not A Knife” mission will actually achieve that speed on its first attempt. Rocket Lab and Hypersonix describe the performance goal as part of the mission concept, but the outcome will depend on how HASTE performs during ascent and how DART AE’s scramjet behaves once released. Unverified based on available sources. As with other hypersonic tests, the most valuable results may come from the data collected on partial successes or anomalies rather than a single headline number.
Previous HASTE launches from Wallops have shown that Rocket Lab can work within the Wallops Range framework, but each mission profile and payload combination introduces new variables. Engineers will need to analyze telemetry from both the rocket and DART AE to understand structural loads, thermal performance and engine behavior across the flight. Defense officials involved in programs like MACH-TB have stressed that reusability and test cadence matter as much as top speed, suggesting that even if the “That’s Not A Knife” flight falls short of Mach 20, it could still advance the Pentagon’s broader goal of building a sustainable hypersonic test ecosystem.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
