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Rocket Lab set for 99th mission with Japanese radar satellite
Space.com reported that Rocket Lab planned to launch a Japanese iQPS synthetic aperture radar satellite on Electron from New Zealand during a window opening at 11:30 a.m. EST on Nov. 2.
Rocket Lab planned to send a Japanese Earth-observing satellite to orbit on Nov. 2, Space.com reported, calling the flight the company's 99th mission1.
An Electron rocket was scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site during a window that opened at 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT), or 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 local time, according to Space.com1.
Space.com identified the mission as The Sea God Surveys and said it would be Rocket Lab's 10th launch for iQPS, a Japanese company assembling a constellation of 36 synthetic aperture radar satellites in low Earth orbit1.
SAR spacecraft can observe through cloud cover and at night as well as in daylight, unlike optical Earth-imaging satellites, Space.com reported1.
The outlet said the launch would be the 90th for the two-stage Electron, which it described as 59 feet (18 meters) tall and used to give small satellites dedicated rides to space, and that the rocket had already flown 16 times in 20261.
Space.com said Rocket Lab's other nine launches to date were flown by HASTE, a suborbital version of Electron used for hypersonic-environment tests that debuted in June 2023 and generally carries classified payloads1.
As of Space.com's report, published the morning of Nov. 2, the mission had not yet lifted off, and the account did not report a delay or scrub1.