John M. Chase/Getty Images The U.S. Department of Defense has invested $190 million in Rocket Lab's innovative HASTE launch vehicle — HASTE stands for Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron — but what's interesting is that it won't be going into deep space. Instead, it's a low-atmosphere rocket based on Rocket Lab's Electron Rocket, designed for hypersonic test flights. A suborbital rocket, if you weren't aware, never reaches orbital velocity speeds, so it falls back to Earth without completing any outer space orbits. It's very different than the company's hypersonic rocket that could actually compete with SpaceX . A suborbital trip allows for a low-gravity experience and suborbital research to conduct a wide variety of experiments and technology testing. That's precisely what Rocket Lab's HASTE launch vehicle and its subsequent program offer.…