VICTUS HAZE: Rocket Lab’s Pioneer Spacecraft and Electron Plan

What does it take to launch on under 24 hours notice and then chase a satellite?

Rocket Lab is attempting to demonstrate a tactically responsive space capability for the United States Space Force on the VICTUS HAZE mission, something the company says has never been achieved before. The mission has two objectives: launch a rocket to orbit with less than 24 hours notice, then deploy and operate a spacecraft that performs rendezvous and proximity operations, described as chasing down, photographing and inspecting another satellite on orbit that does not want to be found. Rocket Lab calls it a game of orbital cat and mouse.

The Pioneer spacecraft and Electron

Rocket Lab designed and built the Pioneer spacecraft, will launch it on Electron and will operate it on orbit. The company presents this as a demonstration of vertically integrated, end-to-end space capabilities.

Commissioning in days, not months

Right after launch the spacecraft enters commissioning, which covers everything needed to prepare it for normal operations. Engineers test all radios with ground stations in orbit for the first time, checking that they can see each other, talk to each other and decode information on the ground, and that encryption works. They also check that cameras and GNC sensors are aligned, so no jitter disturbs the control algorithms. A process that normally takes months to reach confidence in a satellite is compressed to two days or even quicker.

Two targets

The primary objective is to rendezvous with an unknown RSO. That object gives no information back through an intersatellite link, and the team has no telemetry from it. The secondary objective is an evasive RSO, an object actively trying to avoid being imaged. It knows the spacecraft is coming and tries to run away, so the spacecraft must maintain custody, chase it and still inspect it.

Why in-house matters

Rocket Lab's team says developing the critical components in house gives them knowledge of how everything works and lets them solve problems quickly during operations. They describe parts developed specifically for this purpose and the ability to ask the person across the room why a component behaves a certain way. They cite a company value of doing the impossible, whether the issue is hardware, software or concept of operations.

Entering the defense space, a team member says, Rocket Lab offers capabilities as an end-to-end and responsive space provider that no one else has, and expects this to open the door to missions people did not think possible.