The U.S. Army and Navy have conducted a successful, end-to-end test of the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon as they look to field similar versions of the system.
As the first U.S. hypersonic weapons enter service, defense officials are searching for new ideas for high-speed propulsion and to dramatically reduce prices.
The HASTE uses the same Rutherford engines as Rocket Lab's Electron, but modifies the third stage to carry larger payloads and for suborbital deployment.