Tag: Rocket Lab
-
Rocket Lab Launches 92nd Electron, Deploys Eighth Satellite for Japan’s iQPS
The mission came more than a month after the previous launch attempt for the same customer was aborted. With this flight, Rocket Lab extends a commercial relationship with iQPS that now spans eight satellites, a repeat-customer arrangement that has become a fixture of Electron’s manifest. The launch from Mahia deployed a single spacecraft for iQPS,…
-
Rocket Lab Lands $397 Million Space Force Deal to Build and Fly SB-AMTI “Flatellites”
SB-AMTI is designed to track airborne targets from orbit. The program forms part of a broader Space Force push to give the U.S. military persistent overhead tracking of aircraft and missiles from low Earth orbit, a capability that would have been unthinkable on small satellites a decade ago. Rocket Lab was one of three vendors…
-
Rocket Lab Books Three More Electron Launches for Japan’s iQPS, Third Deal in Under a Year
The contract continues iQPS’ build out of its Earth-imaging constellation using synthetic aperture radar, a technology that creates images from radio wave measurements and allows data collection at any time of day and under any weather conditions. Rocket Lab has served as iQPS’ primary launch provider since 2023. The three new dedicated launches are scheduled…
-
Space Force-backed mission does its best impression of Top Gun in orbit
An ongoing military exercise happening hundreds of miles above Earth has—for the first time in an unclassified setting—demonstrated how future satellites might evade and pursue one another in a future conflict. That was the announcement Wednesday from True Anomaly, one of the companies involved in the exercise. True Anomaly’s Jackal satellite, also known as Panther,…
-
Rocket Lab Wins $266 Million Space Force Deal for 12 Suborbital Launches, Anchored by New Alaska Site
The USSF award is the largest launch contract in Rocket Lab’s history and will establish a new company launch location at the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska in Kodiak. The contract was awarded through Space Systems Command’s Rocket Systems Launch Program, or RSLP, which procures launch services for experimental, research and national security missions. Rocket Lab said…
-
Space Force NSSL Ceiling Hits $30B After Lane 1 Triple
Is $30 Billion Enough for the Space Force’s Launch Appetite? The US Space Force tripled the ceiling on its National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 contract to $17 billion on Friday, July 18, 2026 — pushing the combined maximum value of NSSL Phase 3 past $30 billion when added to the Lane 2…
-
South Korea Commits 40B Won to OTV Race Already Underway
Is South Korea Too Late to the Orbital Transfer Vehicle Market? South Korea’s government is committing 40 billion won to develop and demonstrate a flight-model orbital transfer vehicle by 2029 — entering a space logistics race that Impulse Space, D-Orbit, and Rocket Lab USA have been running for years. The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) is…
-
Rocket Lab Clears Full-Duration Archimedes Burn, Advancing Neutron Toward First Flight
Neutron development has progressed in the background while Rocket Lab continues regular launches of its small-lift Electron rocket. The vehicle is now advancing toward a possible debut later this year. The recent second-stage engine test paves the way for integration with Neutron in the coming months. The burn took place at Rocket Lab’s Archimedes Test…
-
Rocket Lab Marks 10th Straight Success for Synspective With “Ten Owl of Ten” Launch
The flight had been delayed from its original schedule by a responsive space mission that took scheduling priority. That tradeoff reflected a launch manifest now complex enough to require active sequencing decisions. Synspective, a Japanese radar-imaging company, has flown all ten of its dedicated missions on Rocket Lab vehicles. Every one of those ten flights…
-
Rocket Lab Completes Tenth Dedicated Synspective Launch
Rocket Lab has successfully launched another satellite for Japanese Earth observation company Synspective, completing the tenth dedicated Electron mission for the customer with a 100% mission success record. The mission, named “Ten Owl Of Ten,” lifted off aboard an Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 5:43 a.m. NZST on 27 June…