Rocket Lab wraps up record launch year

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully launched a Japanese radar imaging satellite Dec. 21 in the final flight of a record-setting year for the company.

An Electron rocket lifted off at 1:36 a.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The rocket deployed its payload, the QPS-SAR-15 satellite for Japanese company iQPS, into a 575-kilometer orbit at an inclination of 42 degrees about 50 minutes later. The satellite later made contact with controllers, iQPS said.

The launch was the seventh Rocket Lab mission for iQPS, which is developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar imaging satellites. The company aims to have 24 satellites in orbit by 2027 and ultimately operate 36 spacecraft.

Six of the seven Electron launches for iQPS took place this year. Rocket Lab is currently under contract with iQPS for five additional launches.

Rocket Lab said this was its final Electron launch of 2025. The company ends the year with 21 Electron launches, a record for Rocket Lab. That total includes three launches of HASTE, a suborbital version of Electron used for hypersonics testing.

Three of the 21 launches occurred in December, including a Dec. 13 launch of a technology demonstration satellite for the Japanese space agency JAXA from New Zealand and a Dec. 18 launch of four DiskSat satellites for the U.S. Space Force from Wallops Island, Virginia. The company had planned an additional launch from New Zealand carrying the NEONSAT-1A imaging satellite for South Korea, but technical issues scrubbed two launch attempts earlier in the month.

The 21 launches met a goal Rocket Lab set earlier this year of conducting at least 20 Electron launches in 2025. The company performed 16 Electron launches in 2024.

“Congratulations to iQPS on this latest successful mission for their constellation, and to the Rocket Lab team on a fantastic record-setting year of Electron launches,” Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Rocket Lab has carved out a niche in the small-launch market even as many other companies in the sector struggle. The company trails only SpaceX in the number of launches among Western companies in 2025, although by a wide margin: SpaceX has completed 165 launches so far this year.

Beck said Rocket Lab plans additional launches for constellation customers as well as suborbital and orbital national security missions, but did not set a specific target for Electron launches. “Our new record of annual launches and the breadth of upcoming missions go to show how much of a global impact Electron continues to have on the space industry, and we’re looking forward to another year of continued execution in 2026.”