On October 14th, Rocket Lab successfully launched a spacecraft for the Japanese radar imaging company, Synspective. This event occurred shortly after the signing of a new contract for additional launches for another company. A Electron rocket successfully lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 12:33 p.m. Eastern time. The payload, a StriX synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite for Synspective, was deployed from the rocket’s kick stage about 50 minutes after liftoff. The satellite was placed into its designated orbit, with an altitude of 583 kilometers and an inclination of 42 degrees.
This mission marked Rocket Lab’s seventh launch for Synspective since 2020, with the previous one taking place in December 2024. All of Synspective’s SAR satellites launched to date have been launched via Electron. According to Synspective, the spacecraft is the first of its third generation of satellites. “Building upon our accumulated operational experience and technological expertise, we have achieved significant advancements in observation performance, reliability and scalability,” said Motoyuki Arai, Synspective’s founder and chief executive, in a statement. The company has not disclosed the specific details about the improvements in this new generation.
Synspective plans to deploy a constellation of 30 satellites by 2030, aiming to provide frequent global coverage. A majority of these satellites will be launched by Electron through a backlog of 20 launches in the coming years, including a contract for 10 additional missions signed on September 30th. While Synspective has exclusively used Electron so far, it has also signed agreements with other launch providers for future missions. Earlier this year, the company reached a contract with SpaceX to launch two satellites on rideshare missions, and in July, it signed a deal with launch services provider Exolaunch for 10 satellites starting in 2027.
The Synspective launch occurred a week after Rocket Lab signed a new launch contract with iQPS, another Japanese company developing a SAR constellation. This contract covers three launches starting no earlier than 2026, adding to an existing backlog of four missions. To date, Electron has launched five iQPS missions, the first being in 2023. The other four took place between March and August this year as part of a pair of four-launch contracts between Rocket Lab and iQPS signed in February. Rocket Lab has announced that its next iQPS launch is planned for November.
“In 2025, we successfully deployed four satellites, QPS-SAR-9 through QPS-SAR-12, into their planned orbits aboard Electron. This outcome was exactly as we had anticipated, and it further reaffirmed our confidence in the rocket’s reliability,” said Shunsuke Onishi, iQPS chief executive, in a statement regarding the new contract.
The Synspective launch marked the 15th Electron mission of the year, and all have been successful. This number includes two launches of its suborbital version of Electron, called HASTE, from Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia, which the company did not publicize. Rocket Lab has projected completing at least 20 Electron launches this year.