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An Electron lifts off Aug. 20 carrying an iQPS satellite. Credit: Rocket Lab

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched another satellite for Japanese radar-imaging company iQPS on Aug. 20.

An Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 9:04 a.m. Eastern on a mission called “The Lightning God Defends” by Rocket Lab. The launch targeted an orbit at an altitude of 575 kilometers and an inclination of 42 degrees.

The vehicle’s payload, the QPS-SAR-18 satellite built by the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, or iQPS, separated from the rocket’s kick stage about 50 minutes later. iQPS said it established contact with the satellite 40 minutes after deployment and confirmed it was operating properly.

This was the ninth Electron launch for iQPS overall and the second consecutive mission for the company. Another Electron launched an iQPS satellite Aug. 6.

iQPS is deploying a constellation of synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, satellites, with a goal of having 24 satellites in orbit by May 2028 and 26 satellites by 2030. It has primarily used Electron to launch those satellites, with nine additional Electron launches under contract.

This was the 14th launch of Electron so far this year, including three launches of the HASTE suborbital version. Rocket Lab says it expects to beat last year’s company record of 21 Electron and HASTE missions.

“Electron and HASTE continue to lead the industry in small launch,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said during an Aug. 10 earnings call, “and on track to beat last year’s launch tally, too.”

Demand for Electron remains high, the company said. While the company has not disclosed specific pricing for the vehicle, Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer, said average selling prices for the vehicle “have gone up pretty significantly over the years.”

Beck argued that experience with Electron, which has now launched 93 times, is helping the company secure business for its larger Neutron rocket, which has yet to make its first flight. “We have a proven track record with Electron and HASTE, and customers know we develop and scale reliable launch vehicles, which is why they’re coming to us now and locking in Neutron slots early.”

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TAMPA, Fla. — Kepler Communications plans to deploy next-generation optical relay satellites on Rocket Lab’s upcoming Neutron rocket in one of several launches the Canadian operator has slated for 2028.

The operator announced Aug. 10 it had booked its first dedicated launch mission for an undisclosed number of satellites as it prepares to ramp up optical connectivity, on-orbit compute and hosted payload capacity. Previous Kepler satellites have shared rides on rockets such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

“Securing our first dedicated launch reflects the next stage of growth,” Kepler chief revenue officer Beau Jarvis said in a statement.

“As we continue expanding our constellation to keep pace with growing customer demand, multiple launches in 2028 will increase capacity, strengthen resilience, and enable new services for customers around the world.”

Kepler deployed 10 satellites around 300 kilograms each for Tranche 1 of the network earlier this year, as part of the company’s shift away from providing connectivity for remote Internet of Things (IoT) devices with much smaller radio frequency spacecraft around 12 kilograms.

According to the company, the low Earth orbit (LEO) relay network has helped deliver 10-fold year-over-year revenue growth, while also serving as the foundation for a hosted payload business.

Disclosed hosted payload partners include German wildfire-detection company OroraTech, which has four thermal imaging payloads aboard Tranche 1 satellites. A Kepler spokesperson said OroraTech is also leveraging the operator’s orbital compute and data relay capabilities.

Whereas Kepler’s current optical relay service advertises data rates of up to 2.5 gigabits per second, the second tranche is designed to support up to 100 Gbps, while remaining compatible with the earlier generation.

Tranche 2 is also slated to include 10 satellites Kepler is developing for the first element of the European Space Agency’s HydRON program, which aims to demonstrate a multi-orbit, terabit-per-second transport system for extending the reach of terrestrial fiber networks.

Rocket Lab’s medium-lift Neutron rocket is designed to carry up to 13,000 kilograms to LEO in its reusable configeration, compared with around 300 kilograms for its Electron small launch workhorse.

The company plans to debut Neutron late this year after a first stage propellant tank ruptured during testing in January.

Multiple contracts have been announced for Neutron to date, including a confidential customer that booked five Neutron and three Electron launches in May for missions between 2026 and 2029, in what was then Rocket Lab’s largest launch contract.

In July, Rocket Lab announced a $266 million U.S. Space Force contract for up to 18 suborbital missions, which the company said marked its largest launch award to date.

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Rocket Lab said it has developed a containerized launch system for its Electron and HASTE rockets, an effort to make it easier to operate the vehicles from locations beyond the company’s permanent launch sites and give military customers more options for orbital and hypersonic test missions.

The system, called GHOST, short for Global Hypersonic & Orbital Spaceport Technology, packages the equipment needed to support a launch — including ground-support hardware and range-control systems — into standard shipping containers that can be transported and installed at new sites.

Rocket Lab said the same infrastructure can support both Electron, its small orbital rocket, and HASTE, an Electron-derived suborbital vehicle used to carry hypersonic test articles and other experimental payloads to high speeds and altitudes.

On an Aug. 10 earnings call, Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck said GHOST was developed in response to customer demand rather than speculation about a future market. The system stemmed from an actual “request from a customer,” he said, citing strong demand for HASTE and a need “to be able to be a little bit more mobile than we are.”

The first GHOST installation will be at the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska on Kodiak Island, where Rocket Lab plans to establish two pads under a new Launch Complex 4. The company said the system is expected to make its operational debut there with a suborbital mission in 2027.

The Alaska expansion is tied to a $266 million Space Force contract for 12 suborbital launches, with options for six more. Most of those missions are expected to launch from Kodiak.

GHOST is designed to reduce the amount of fixed infrastructure Rocket Lab needs to establish when opening a new launch location. That could be useful for military missions that require different flight trajectories or access to ranges outside the company’s existing facilities in New Zealand and Virginia.

For hypersonic testing in particular, operating HASTE from additional ranges could give the Pentagon more flexibility over flight paths and downrange areas rather than concentrating missions at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Rocket Lab also sees potential demand from U.S. allies seeking their own launch capability without building a conventional permanent launch complex. Moving launch sites can open different orbital inclinations and suborbital trajectories depending on geography.

Any deployment would still require an appropriate site as well as licensing, range-safety planning, airspace and maritime coordination and security arrangements.

“Whether it’s for missile defense and deterrence, or opening up more trajectories, orbital missions, and sovereign launch capabilities in allied nations, GHOST is the answer to launching anywhere, anytime,” Beck said.

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Electron before the Aug. 6 launch of an iQPS radar-imaging satellite. Credit: Rocket Lab

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched a Japanese radar-imaging satellite Aug. 6, more than a month after the previous launch attempt was aborted.

The Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 5:18 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s payload, the QPS-SAR-13 satellite, separated from the upper stage nearly 50 minutes later into a planned circular orbit at an altitude of 575 kilometers and an inclination of 42 degrees.

The launch was the first for Rocket Lab since June 26, when it placed a radar-imaging satellite for Synspective into orbit. Rocket Lab had planned to launch this mission, called “The Grain Goddess Provides” by the company, on June 30, but aborted the launch just as Electron’s first-stage engines ignited.

The company did not disclose what caused the scrub or the extended delay until this launch. Rocket Lab’s launch webcast did not mention the delay.

The customer for this launch was the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, or iQPS, a Japanese company developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar imaging satellites. This was the eighth Electron launch of an iQPS satellite, with 10 more under contract. Three of those future launches were added in a contract between the companies announced July 30.

This was the 13th Electron launch so far this year, including three launches of HASTE, the suborbital version of Electron. Rocket Lab said its next Electron launch, again for iQPS, is planned for no earlier than late August from Launch Complex 1.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded contracts totaling $615 million to Rocket Lab, Systems & Technology Research and a third unidentified company to develop technologies for a satellite network intended to track aircraft and missile threats from orbit.

The Space Force did not disclose how the $615 million was divided among the three companies.

Rocket Lab’s share is a $397 million agreement to develop, launch and operate multiple “Flatellites,” which the company describes as a “next-generation flat satellite design optimized for large constellations — with space-based sensors and low latency, high bandwidth communication links.”

The firm-fixed-price agreements are the latest awards under the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator, or SB-AMTI, program, which is being developed to provide the military with persistent tracking from space over areas where surveillance aircraft may be unable to operate safely.

Rocket Lab said in a news release Aug. 4 it will launch the Flatellites on the company’s next-generation Neutron rocket and operate them from secure facilities, providing data and track information to the Space Force. An option for additional Flatellites is included in the total contract value.

The Space Force said these awards are intended to expand the AMTI program’s supplier base and evaluate different approaches to detecting and tracking airborne targets.

“The core focus of this second task order is diversifying our capabilities and ensuring we don’t rely on a single technical solution. With these new partnerships, we are exploring unique innovations and technologies and fundamentally different ways to accomplish the airborne moving target indication mission,” said Col. Ryan Frazier, acting Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for Space-Based Sensing and Targeting.

The new contracts follow a $4.16 billion award to SpaceX to build the initial AMTI satellite constellation. That network is designed to detect, track and maintain custody of airborne targets including fighter aircraft, bombers, cruise missiles and potentially hypersonic weapons.

The SpaceX agreement establishes the program’s initial operational baseline, while the latest awards appear focused on developing alternative or complementary sensing technologies. Space Force officials have said the broader architecture will use multiple vendors rather than rely on a single contractor or sensor design.

AMTI is part of a Pentagon effort to shift some sensing missions traditionally performed by aircraft into space. Large airborne surveillance platforms can provide wide-area radar coverage, but their ability to operate near a conflict zone may be constrained by long-range missiles and advanced air defenses.

A proliferated satellite constellation could provide broader coverage without placing aircraft and crews inside those threat areas. The system would combine space-based sensors, communications links and ground processing to produce updated tracks showing a target’s location, speed and direction.

Space-based AMTI could help detect and track cruise missiles and other airborne threats that may be difficult to follow using existing missile-warning sensors alone.

Rocket Lab, based in Long Beach, California, builds launch vehicles, satellites and spacecraft components for commercial and government customers and has been expanding its work on military satellite constellations.

Systems & Technology Research, known as STR, is a Virginia-based defense technology company specializing in advanced sensors, signal-processing software, artificial intelligence and command-and-control systems for military and intelligence customers.

STR has worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on projects that combine commercial spacecraft with advanced signal processing for national-security missions, experience that could be relevant as the Space Force evaluates alternative sensing approaches for AMTI.

The identity of the third contractor was withheld for operational-security reasons.

The Space Force described the $615 million package as its second AMTI task order. Officials said the acquisition strategy is intended to mature emerging technologies, draw on commercial investment and preserve long-term competition as the architecture expands.

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WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab has won another contract from Japanese radar imaging company iQPS for multiple launches of its Electron rocket.

Rocket Lab announced July 30 it signed a contract for three Electron launches of iQPS radar-imaging satellites starting in late 2027. The launches will take place from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, each placing an iQPS satellite into a 575-kilometer low Earth orbit.

The contract is the third multi-launch deal between iQPS and Rocket Lab announced in the last year. In April, the companies signed a contract for three Electron launches and, last October, signed a contract for three launches.

Including earlier awards, Rocket Lab has been contracted for 18 Electron launches. Seven of those launches have taken place, most recently in December.

Rocket Lab was scheduled to launch another iQPS satellite June 30 from Launch Complex 1, but liftoff was aborted just as the engines in Electron’s first stage ignited. Rocket Lab did not disclose the reason for the abort and has yet to reschedule the launch. There have been no other Electron launches since that abort, and iQPS, in its own statement about the new launch contract, said its next launch is planned for no earlier than August.

iQPS, or Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, is developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, imaging satellites. The company has a goal of deploying a 24-satellite constellation by May 2028, increasing it to 36 satellites by 2030.

The iQPS contract announcement comes three days after Rocket Lab announced it won a Space Force contract for up to 18 launches of the suborbital variant of Electron, called HASTE, that will take place from a new Rocket Lab launch facility in Alaska. The $266 million contract is the company’s largest launch award to date.

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WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will establish a new launch site in Alaska under a $266 million U.S. Space Force contract for up to 18 suborbital missions, expanding the company’s role in military launch services as the Pentagon seeks more capacity for weapons testing.

The contract, which marks the company’s largest launch award to date, was awarded by the Space Systems Command’s Rocket Systems Launch Program and covers 12 launches, with options for six additional missions. The first launch is scheduled no earlier than the end of 2026.

The contract was announced by the U.S. Space Force on July 21. Rocket Lab confirmed July 27 the award will support the development of a new launch site at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska. This will give the company a fourth launch site alongside its existing facilities in New Zealand and Virginia.

The award further expands Rocket Lab’s role in national security launches beyond its commercial small satellite business. The company has increasingly positioned its Electron-derived HASTE suborbital vehicle as a platform for hypersonic and missile defense testing, completing multiple missions for Pentagon customers in recent years.

The Rocket Systems Launch Program provides responsive launch services for research, development and operational test missions across the Defense Department. The contract announcement did not identify the payloads or specify which launch vehicle Rocket Lab will use.

The award comes as the Pentagon seeks to increase the pace of hypersonic flight testing and missile defense development, areas where defense officials have said limited test infrastructure has slowed progress.

Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck said the contract reflects the military’s demand for more frequent launch opportunities to support missile defense programs.

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WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched a radar-imaging satellite for Japanese company Synspective on June 26, a flight delayed by a responsive space mission.

The Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 1:43 p.m. Eastern on a mission called “10 Owl of 10” by the company. The payload, a StriX satellite, separated from the rocket’s kick stage 56 minutes later into a 552-kilometer orbit inclined at 42 degrees.

The launch was the 10th Electron mission to carry a Synspective satellite. The Japanese company has relied exclusively on Electron to deploy its satellites and has contracts for 17 more Electron launches. Synspective also has agreements to launch seven spacecraft on future SpaceX rideshare missions.

The launch was scheduled for as early as June 17. However, Rocket Lab said late June 16 that the launch date “is being adjusted to conduct additional checkouts before launch,” without elaborating.

Instead, Rocket Lab performed a responsive launch mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Victus Haze program. The launch took place June 19, also from Launch Complex 1, but it was more than 72 hours before the Space Force or Rocket Lab announced the launch. There were no eyewitness reports of the launch from the remote location, although the payload and upper stage from the launch appeared in the Space Force’s Space-Track database a day later, before the formal announcement of the mission.

The launch was the 12th Electron mission of 2026, including three flights of the HASTE suborbital variant. The most recent HASTE launch took place June 11 from Launch Complex 2 in Virginia. The mission, code-named “Curveball,” resulted in the rocket’s second stage and kick stage reaching a very low orbit and thus being cataloged in Space-Track, although they likely reentered within about a day.

The payload itself was not cataloged, and its fate is not known. Rocket Lab did not announce the launch in advance, and on its website, the launch is listed with no details, including its launch date.

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WASHINGTON — NASA has selected Rocket Lab to launch a pair of science missions on three Electron rockets in 2027.

NASA announced June 25 it selected Rocket Lab to launch its Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer, or PolSIR, and Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-2, or TSIS-2, missions on Electron rockets.

PolSIR consists of two 16U cubesats built by Blue Canyon Technologies that will measure the rise and fall of ice crystals in tropical clouds, as well as how those changes in ice affect storm development. The satellites will operate in separate orbits, each inclined at 52 degrees, allowing them to pass over the same area several hours apart to measure changes over the course of each day.

TSIS-2 is a spacecraft that will be the successor to TSIS-1, an instrument mounted on the exterior of the International Space Station. The spacecraft, built by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, carries instruments to measure the amount of solar energy entering Earth’s atmosphere.

The PolSIR spacecraft will launch on back-to-back Electrons from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand no earlier than June 2027. TSIS-2 will launch on an Electron from Launch Complex 1 in early 2027.

TSIS-2 was originally expected to launch on a Falcon 9 as part of a rideshare mission with other NASA and commercial satellites. The agency did not disclose why it moved TSIS-2 to Electron, but that mission is several years behind its original schedule because of what NASA once described as “challenges” with the spacecraft vendor.

The awards were made under NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare, or VADR, contract vehicle for procuring launches of small satellites. NASA has repeatedly declined to disclose the value of VADR awards, stating that the task orders used under the contract contain company proprietary information.

“Electron has become synonymous with reliability, precise orbital accuracy and on-demand launch capability, and we’ve been delivering this for NASA missions for almost a decade. We’re proud to deliver this once again for PolSIR and TSIS-2,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a statement.

In addition to PolSIR and TSIS-2, Rocket Lab has an agreement to launch NASA’s Aspera astrophysics smallsat mission, also through the VADR contract. It is expected to launch later this year.

Rocket Lab is separately preparing to launch LOXSAT, a mission to test cryogenic fluid management technologies for NASA through the agency’s Tipping Point technology demonstration program. The LOXSAT mission, led by Eta Space, uses a Rocket Lab Photon spacecraft and is slated to launch later this year.

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WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched a spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force to begin a military exercise focused on rapidly identifying and characterizing potential threats in space.

The company on June 19 launched the Victus Haze spacecraft, known as “Victus Haze Puma,” aboard an Electron rocket from the company’s launch site in Mahia, New Zealand. The satellite was developed under a $32 million contract awarded by the Space Force in 2024 and is one of two spacecraft participating in the Victus Haze mission.

The spacecraft was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit and will now undergo commissioning before beginning rendezvous and proximity operations, or RPO, with a spacecraft operated by Colorado-based startup True Anomaly.

“With launch complete, the team will now complete on-orbit checkout and vehicle commissioning, after which RPO operations begin,” Space Systems Command said in a June 22 statement. “During these operations, the teams operating both the Rocket Lab and the True Anomaly space vehicles will conduct a variety of scenarios, demonstrating space domain Awareness and characterization capabilities, each in dynamic engagements with the other.”

Victus Haze is the fourth demonstration under the Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Space, or TacRS, program, which seeks to prove that commercial providers can rapidly launch spacecraft on military timelines while also performing increasingly sophisticated missions once in orbit.

The exercise builds on lessons from the 2023 Victus Nox demonstration, when the Space Force and launch provider Firefly Aerospace launched a satellite within 27 hours of receiving a launch order. While Victus Nox focused primarily on rapid launch, Victus Haze expands the concept to include the ability to quickly deploy spacecraft capable of maneuvering, inspecting and characterizing objects in orbit.

The broader goal is to transform responsive launch from a demonstration effort into an operational military capability. Space Force officials have argued that future conflicts may require the rapid replacement of damaged satellites, deployment of new sensors or launch of spacecraft to investigate suspicious activity in orbit on timelines measured in days rather than months or years.

Under the Victus Haze architecture, the Space Force selected Rocket Lab and True Anomaly to provide separate maneuvering spacecraft that would conduct rendezvous and proximity operations after launch.

The Rocket Lab spacecraft is expected to conduct operations with Jackal-004, a True Anomaly spacecraft already in orbit, rather than waiting for a dedicated Victus Haze vehicle that had been expected to launch separately on a Firefly Aerospace rocket.

Jackal launched May 3 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission carrying South Korea’s CAS500-2 Earth observation satellite. The spacecraft will maneuver and interact with Rocket Lab’s vehicle with during the demonstration.

True Anomaly received a $30 million contract for Victus Haze.

Prior to the Rocket Lab launch, the Space Force’s Space Safari program office directed the company to a “heightened readiness posture” before activating the team into alert status.

Rocket Lab highlighted several milestones achieved during the exercise. After receiving the formal notice-to-launch order from the Space Force’s Space Safari program office, Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket within 16 hours and 42 minutes, beating the mission’s 24-hour responsive launch requirement.

The company’s guidance, navigation and control team took roughly four hours to calculate a final trajectory to a previously undisclosed orbit, update flight software and coordinate ground stations ahead of launch. Once in orbit, Rocket Lab completed commissioning of its spacecraft in 37 hours and 36 minutes, allowing it to begin orbital maneuvers more than 34 hours ahead of Victus Haze’s 72-hour operational deadline.

“Victus Haze set out to demonstrate our ability to respond to irresponsible behavior on orbit under operationally realistic conditions, and we are doing just that, leveraging commercial partnerships to maximize flexibility and minimize cost,” said Col. Bryon McClain, acting Space Force portfolio acquisition executive for Space Combat Power.

True Anomaly said in a statement that Jackal is “fully operational and ready to execute rendezvous and proximity operations.”