RKLB•RKLB•Rocket Lab completed the VICTUS HAZE mission just 16 hours 42 minutes after U.S. Space Force launch notice, beating the previous record by over 10 hours. The mission marked Rocket Lab’s first turnkey responsive space service with rapid trajectory calculations, spacecraft commissioning in 37h36m, and ongoing RPO operations.
Rocket Lab lifted its Electron rocket at Launch Complex 1 just 16 hours 42 minutes after receiving the U.S. Space Force’s Notice to Launch, shattering the previous TacRS record by more than 10 hours. The GNC team completed trajectory calculations, flight software updates and ground station coordination in just four hours, demonstrating unprecedented speed in call-up launch capability.
VICTUS HAZE represents the first all-in-one TacRS mission handled by a single prime contractor, with Rocket Lab vertically engineering, building, testing, launching and commissioning the Pioneer spacecraft. This end-to-end offering showcases Rocket Lab’s integrated supply chain—covering propulsion, solar arrays, structures and flight software—designed to eliminate third-party delays and compress acquisition timelines.
Within 37 hours 36 minutes of liftoff, Rocket Lab fully activated the Pioneer spacecraft and began complex Rendezvous and Proximity Operations against a non-compliant satellite. The capability to rapidly launch, pursue, image and monitor objects in low Earth orbit strengthens space domain awareness and positions Rocket Lab as a key provider of rapid-response national security space services.
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