Rocket Lab wins another launch contract from Japan’s iQPS
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab has won another contract from Japanese radar imaging company iQPS for multiple launches of its Electron rocket.
Rocket Lab announced July 30 it signed a contract for three Electron launches of iQPS radar-imaging satellites starting in late 2027. The launches will take place from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, each placing an iQPS satellite into a 575-kilometer low Earth orbit.
The contract is the third multi-launch deal between iQPS and Rocket Lab announced in the last year. In April, the companies signed a contract for three Electron launches and, last October, signed a contract for three launches.
Including earlier awards, Rocket Lab has been contracted for 18 Electron launches. Seven of those launches have taken place, most recently in December.
Rocket Lab was scheduled to launch another iQPS satellite June 30 from Launch Complex 1, but liftoff was aborted just as the engines in Electron’s first stage ignited. Rocket Lab did not disclose the reason for the abort and has yet to reschedule the launch. There have been no other Electron launches since that abort, and iQPS, in its own statement about the new launch contract, said its next launch is planned for no earlier than August.
iQPS, or Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, is developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, imaging satellites. The company has a goal of deploying a 24-satellite constellation by May 2028, increasing it to 36 satellites by 2030.
The iQPS contract announcement comes three days after Rocket Lab announced it won a Space Force contract for up to 18 launches of the suborbital variant of Electron, called HASTE, that will take place from a new Rocket Lab launch facility in Alaska. The $266 million contract is the company’s largest launch award to date.
