A US Space Force-backed exercise has publicly demonstrated satellites pursuing, inspecting and evading each other in orbit, a capability with potential military uses in monitoring suspicious spacecraft near critical satellites. The Victus Haze mission involved True Anomaly’s Jackal satellite and Rocket Lab’s Puma satellite carrying out close approaches and mutual imaging before beginning repeated pursuit-and-evasion manoeuvres.

Rocket Lab launched Puma from New Zealand on 19 June, less than 17 hours after the Space Force call-up, and activated it for manoeuvres within 38 hours, exceeding the 72-hour target. Puma completed its rendezvous and photographed Jackal in under 59 hours, against an 84-hour requirement; the small satellites are roughly dishwasher-to-refrigerator sized.