Did Rocket Lab's Suborbital Rocket Reach Orbit?

Update, June 17, 8:12 a.m. ET: After publication, Rocket Lab provided Gizmodo with the following statement: “Rocket Lab has never placed any object into orbit unintentionally.” The company did not provide additional details about the mission or the object tracked in orbit. Rocket Lab’s latest mission, named Curveball, has earned its title. The company launched a mysterious payload on its suborbital rocket, and it somehow ended up in orbit. On June 11, Rocket Lab’s HASTE vehicle lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on a government mission. HASTE, short for Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron, is a modified version of the company’s Electron rocket that’s designed to fly at hypersonic speeds up to five times the speed of sound. Another important distinction is that HASTE is a suborbital launch vehicle that has flown seven times without reaching low-Earth orbit. A few days after its latest launch, however, the U.S. Space Force spotted the rocket in orbit. It’s not clear how HASTE ended up there, or what happened to its payload. Prior to its debut on June 17, 2023, Rocket Lab shared little information on its HASTE vehicle. The suborbital rocket serves a

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