'Launching anywhere, anytime and without compromise': Rocket Lab unveils new 'GHOST' portable spaceport system

Rocket Lab plans to start launching even more frequently and flexibly, thanks to a new portable spaceport system called "GHOST." GHOST — short for "Global Hypersonic & Orbital Spaceport Technology" — turns the company's " Electron and HASTE rockets into a launch-anywhere, launch-anytime capability for multi-launch flight campaigns and critical national security missions," Rocket Lab representatives said in a statement today (Aug.

10).

"Packaged entirely within standard shipping containers, GHOST deploys complete rockets, launch infrastructure, ground support and range control systems anywhere in the world," they added.

Electron is Rocket Lab's workhorse orbital rocket, giving small satellites dedicated rides to the final frontier.

The expendable 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) launcher debuted with a test flight in 2017 and has 83 missions under its belt to date.

As its full name suggests, HASTE ("Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron") is a suborbital version of Electron that customers use to test various technologies in the hypersonic flight environment.

HASTE first flew in June 2023 and has flown nine times to date, most recently in June of this year.

Rocket Lab currently flies from two different launch sites — one on the North Island of company founder and CEO Peter Beck's native New Zealand and one at Wallops Island in Virginia.

But the company recently announced plans to fly out of Alaska's Pacific Spaceport Complex as well, and GHOST will expand its launch footprint even further.

"Electron and HASTE revolutionized small orbital launch and hypersonic testing.

Now we're making it easier to deploy them wherever they're needed most, whether that's for missile defense testing or sovereign orbital launch capability," Beck said this afternoon during Rocket Lab's second-quarter 2026 earnings call.

"We've mastered the art of building launch sites," he added.

"Now we're making them deployable worldwide." Rocket Lab intends to deploy its two planned pads at the Pacific Spaceport Complex using GHOST, Beck said during the call.

The company was inspired to develop the portable spaceport system, he added, to meet the needs of a HASTE customer, who expressed a desire for Rocket Lab to be "a little bit more mobile than we are." Rocket Lab currently flies out of two pads at its New Zealand site and one at Wallops, though it has built a second pad at the Virginia facility to accommodate launches of its coming Neutron rocket .