Rocket Lab plans hypersonic aircraft flight test from Virginia

Rocket Lab Corp. announced Thursday that its next launch will be a dedicated mission for the Department of War’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). The flight, named “Cassowary Vex,” is slated to lift off no earlier than late February from Launch Complex 2 at the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid‑Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island.

The mission will employ Rocket Lab’s HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator System for Testing and Evaluation) vehicle, a commercially operated launch system that the company has positioned as a rapid‑turnaround, low-cost platform for hypersonic testing. The flight will carry the DART AE, a scramjet-powered aircraft prototype developed by Australian aerospace firm Hypersonix. DART AE stands for Dual‑Axis Ram‑jet Test – Advanced Experimental.

This will be our fourth hypersonic test launch in under six months. The HASTE vehicle provides the Department of War and its allies with a repeatable, high-performance testbed capable of reaching flight regimes up to Mach 20, unmatched in the commercial sector.

The DIU, which partners with private‑sector innovators to accelerate the fielding of advanced technologies for national security, selected the HASTE platform to restore a domestic hypersonic testing capability that had been eroded after the retirement of several government-run programs. By leveraging Rocket Lab’s commercial launch cadence and cost structure, the DIU aims to increase the frequency of flight tests, shorten development cycles, and reduce overall program expenditures.

Hypersonix, the Australian company behind DART AE, is seeking to validate its scramjet design for potential future applications in rapid‑response strike weapons and high-speed reconnaissance. Successful deployment of the vehicle would demonstrate a key technology milestone for both the firm and the broader U.S. hypersonic community.