Last week, New Zealand space company Rocket Lab (which also has a US subsidiary) broke the record for launching an Electron rocket with a payload for a specific mission. As part of the U.S. Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Space (TACRS) program, Rocket Lab was given an unscheduled notice to launch, the purpose of which was to place one of the company’s Pioneer spacecraft in orbit to participate in a drill in the shortest possible time. That time: ultimately 16 hours, 42 minutes, or 10 hours faster than the previous record holder for another TacRS mission. Planning a rocket launch usually takes years, sometimes even months.. Rocket Lab has just demonstrated that it can be done in less than a day and with real payloads that then do real work.
Basically, the Space Force is figuring out how to shoot down space rockets the same way the Air Force shoots down fighter planes. As activity in space becomes greater, the likelihood that satellites could be targeted in a conflict increases. China, in particular, is building a range of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, including highly maneuverable spacecraft that can forcibly capture an enemy object in orbit – or even ram into it directly. The USSF, like every other military branch, wants to be able to respond rapidly to such a crisis.
It doesn’t need to be longer or farther, but it needs to be faster.
Even after the hyper-rapid launch, the mission is not yet complete. The next phase of Victus Haze (yes, that’s the name of an actual mission, not what Immortan Joe named his bong) is a rendezvous and proximity operations drill in space. Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket deployed a Pioneer spacecraft, which the company says was designed for mobility. This is simulating a direct response to an unguided satellite, Played by the Jackal spacecraft built by True Anomaly. Basically, if a spacecraft becomes a threat, inadvertently or otherwise, how fast can the Space Force do something about it? Very fast, at least in space rocket terms. But if the bad guy can hit his target in a matter of hours, well, we’re still out of luck there.
The TacRS program continues, with three more missions coming next year. Victus Sargo and Victus Salo (those names!) will both be launched by SpaceX Falcon 9s carrying spacecraft by Impulse Space and MIT, respectively. Victus Sol (we’re just playing ‘Destiny 2’ right now) will be launched by the Firefly Alpha. If they somehow get even faster than Rocket Lab, space is really becoming a place you can just go to rather than plan. What a time to be alive.
