WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched the latest in a series of radar imaging satellites for a Japanese company May 17.
An Electron rocket lifted off from Pad A at the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 4:17 a.m. Eastern. About 50 minutes later it deployed its payload, the QPS-SAR-10 satellite, into a circular 575-kilometer orbit at an inclination of 42 degrees.
The satellite was built by Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, or iQPS, a Japanese company developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites. This was the third Electron launch for iQPS and the second in a multi-launch contract after a launch in mid-March.
The satellite is the tenth that iQPS has launched, although its first satellite malfunctioned shortly after launch and two others were lost in an Epsilon launch failure in 2022. The company is planning to grow its constellation to 24 satellites by 2027 and ultimately to 36 spacecraft.
“With more Electron launches ahead, we’re more committed than ever to accelerating the buildout of our satellite constellation, and we look forward to continuing this powerful partnership,” Shunsuke Onishi, chief executive of iQPS, said in a statement after the launch.
The iQPS contract with Rocket Lab includes six more Electron launches, four in 2025 and two in 2026. The next launch is scheduled for June, Rocket Lab announced after this launch.
Rocket Lab touted the iQPS contract as evidence of its ability to support deployments of smallsat constellations where customers need access to specific orbits and control over their deployment schedules, which the company argues that rideshare launches, like SpaceX’s Transporter and Bandwagon missions, cannot provide.
“We have a lot of customers that will go and fly on a Transporter, and then they’ll come back and they’ll go book their whole constellation on us,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in an interview in April.
In a May 8 earnings call, Rocket Lab reported a slight decrease in the average selling price (ASP) of Electron, which the company blamed on the mix of contracts for the vehicle’s launches in the quarter, including the multiple-launch contracts.
“We’ve got volume launch deals where we price relatively aggressively because people are making long-term volume commitments to the business,” said Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer, on the call.
“However, our current backlog for Electron, and HASTE backlog, continues to support an increase in ASP with some variability quarterly,” he noted, citing customers with greater mission assurance or other requirements. HASTE is a version of Electron for suborbital flight demonstrations. “We expect ASP for the calendar year 2025 to materially expand when compared to 2024.”
This launch was the sixth of the year for Electron, with the company previously committing to performing at least 20 Electron launches overall. Spice said the company expects an increase in launch cadence in the second half of the year.
