&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "A real 'Curveball': This rocket shouldn't have reached low-Earth orbit, but it somehow did")
A mission named Curveball by Rocket Lab saw a rocket that was not meant to reach low-Earth orbit, somehow end up right there. The US Space Force was left puzzled when it spotted HASTE, short for Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron, in orbit. The company launched a mysterious payload on its suborbital rocket on June 11. It took off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on a government mission with a secret payload. HASTE is a modified version of the company’s Electron rocket that can fly at five times the speed of sound. It has taken seven flights till now. But its latest launch has stumped everyone.
According to Rocket Lab, the rocket offers “reliable, high-cadence flight test opportunities needed to advance hypersonic and suborbital system technology development." It took its first flight on June 17, 2023, and is used as a testing tech by the US Department of Defense and others developing hypersonic technology. Before this, HASTE was contracted by the Department of Defense to deploy a scramjet-powered aircraft developed by Australian aerospace engineering firm Hypersonix.
Was the suborbital rocket sent to orbit intentionally?
Curveball was on a government mission, as per the details available, and there is no information on the kind of payload it was carrying. How a suborbital rocket ended up in low-Earth orbit remains a mystery. It is unclear whether Rocket Lab intentionally set it for orbit or if it ended up there by mistake. Gizmodo quoted astronomer Jonathan McDowell as saying that the orbital parameters for Curveball indicate that the rocket’s stages are being tracked in a 200-kilometre orbit with a 40-degree inclination. However, where the payload is now is not known.
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McDowell wrote on X, "Does this mean CURVEBALL reached orbit and then the payload was deorbited on first orbit?" There is also the possibility that the payload completed its orbit and crashed down on Earth, after which it was recovered over the western US.
