True Anomaly and Rocket Lab completed a complex orbital rendezvous mission for the U.S. Space Force last week, demonstrating close inspection of a spacecraft in orbit. The mission, named Victus Haze, took place in low Earth orbit and involved a Rocket Lab Puma spacecraft launched about 16 hours after receiving launch orders, and a True Anomaly Jackal spacecraft that located and flew near the target from roughly 2,000 kilometers away, capturing imagery before returning to its original orbit.

The U.S. Space Force has said that inspecting a vehicle soon after orbital insertion is necessary as China and Russia regularly deploy new space capabilities. According to True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers, the demonstration addresses current gaps in collection capacity and represents one of the most complex proximity operations between two uncrewed spacecraft in modern history. The Jackal spacecraft used onboard sensors to identify the Puma from a distance of 2,000 kilometers, maneuvered to within a classified proximity distance, and photographed multiple sections of the target before returning to its starting orbit.

Rocket Lab launched Puma on June 5, 2026, 16 hours and 42 minutes after notification, a timeline that is unusually short compared with typical launch preparations. The two companies plan additional missions in the coming weeks that may involve evasion maneuvers and more detailed inspection activities. True Anomaly, founded in 2022 by former military space personnel and having raised just over $1 billion, including a $650 million round in March, intends to compete for task orders under the Space Force’s $6.2 billion Andromeda program, which seeks private sector capabilities for maneuverable reconnaissance. CEO Rogers added that flight heritage and demonstrated capability are decisive factors for winning such contracts.

The next set of exercises will increase in difficulty, potentially testing the ability of one spacecraft to evade another while conducting its own inspection, and the outcome of those demonstrations will influence future Space Force procurement decisions.