Tag: Rocket Lab
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Space Force Expands Space-Based Air Tracking Vendor Pool to 12 Companies
The U.S. Space Force’s Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator program has expanded to 12 participating companies, with Blue Origin, Boeing and commercial radar-satellite operator Umbra appearing in public contract records alongside nine previously identified vendors. The broader supplier pool gives the service additional spacecraft, sensor, processing and integration options as it works toward fielding an…
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Rocket Lab Deploys Synspective Radar Satellite on 85th Electron Mission (Video)
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched a Strix satellite for Synspective, a Tokyo-based Earth-imaging company on Sept. 2, 2026 from New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab launched another synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth-observation company Synspective on September 2, extending a dedicated launch campaign supporting the expansion of the Strix constellation. The Electron…
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Rocket Lab Targets Sept. 2 Launch for Synspective’s 11th StriX Radar Satellite
Rocket Lab is preparing to launch another synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth observation company Synspective, extending one of the small-launch sector’s largest dedicated constellation deployment campaigns. The Electron rocket is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula during a window opening at 11:00 UTC on…
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Rocket Lab Targets Ninth iQPS Mission as Japanese SAR Constellation Accelerates Toward Near-Real-Time Earth Observation
Rocket Lab is preparing to launch another Japanese synthetic aperture radar satellite on Aug. 20, adding a new spacecraft to one of the fastest-growing commercial Earth-observation constellations in Asia. The mission, named “The Lightning God Defends,” is scheduled to lift off aboard a Rocket Lab Electron from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula,…
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Viasat Taps Rocket Lab to Build Anti-Jam GEO Satellite for Space Force Tactical Comms Program
The selection follows a prime contract Viasat won on May 22, 2026 to deliver one of the first small, maneuverable geosynchronous Earth orbit satellites for the PTS-G constellation. That initial production award, known as Swarm 1, covers manufacturing, integration and test, launch, and on-orbit checkout of the mini-GEO satellite system. Viasat’s government space team, within…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…