Verified facts grounded in source documentation.
Rocket Lab successfully launched a suborbital mission with its HASTE launch vehicle for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on November 18, 2025.
Five missile tracking satellites designed and built by L3Harris Technologies successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida as part of the Missile Defense Agency’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program and the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 Tracking Layer program.
The Missile Defense Agency plans to launch two HBTSS prototypes, one from L3Harris and one from Northrop Grumman, to test sensor capabilities to track hypersonic and dim upper-stage ballistic missiles.
The Missile Defense Agency selected two satellite designs made by L3Harris and Northrop Grumman for HBTSS and plans to launch both prototypes to orbit in 2023.
The Space Development Agency plans to launch 30 satellites in 2022, comprising 20 Transport Layer data-relay satellites, eight missile-warning Tracking Layer satellites, and two sensor satellites from the Missile Defense Agency.
The Space Development Agency and the Missile Defense Agency plan to launch a Prototype Infrared Payload made by Northrop Grumman as a medium field-of-view multispectral sensor.