Rocket Lab Schedules Next Electron Launch, Sixth Mission for Constellation Operator iQPS

LONG BEACH, Calif., Oct. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rocket Lab Corporation (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced the launch window for its next mission for multi-launch customer Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS), a Japan-based Earth imaging company. The mission will be Electron’s 74^th launch to date and 16^th mission this year.

The upcoming dedicated launch, named ‘The Nation God Navigates”, is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand during a launch window that opens on November 5, 2025 UTC. The mission will deploy QPS-SAR-14, nicknamed YACHIHOKO-I for the Japanese god of nation-building, to a 575km circular Earth orbit. This satellite will join the rest of the QPS-SAR constellation in providing high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images and Earth monitoring services globally. iQPS aims to build a constellation of 36 SAR satellites that will provide near-real-time images of Earth every 10 minutes.

‘The Nation God Navigates’ will be the sixth mission deployed on Electron for iQPS, following previous successful missions ‘The Moon God Awakens’ in December 2023 as well as ‘The Lightning God Reigns’,  ‘The Sea God Sees’, ‘The Mountain God Guards’ and ‘The Harvest Goddess Thrives’ in 2025. Beyond this mission, six more dedicated iQPS missions are set to launch on Electron in 2026 and beyond, making Rocket Lab the go-to provider for their constellation.

Rocket Lab is a leader in responsive launch and precise orbital access for a range of small satellite operators globally. The world’s most frequently launched commercial small-lift rocket, Electron continues to demonstrate its reliability amid a busy launch cadence, achieving 100% mission success on all missions this year – with more launches scheduled from now through the end of 2025.

‘The Nation God Navigates’ launch information: https://rocketlabcorp.com/missions/next-mission

‘The Nation God Navigates’ launch window opens:

• 2:45 pm Eastern, November 5
• 11:45 am Pacific, November 5  
• 19:45 UTC, November 5 
• 4:45 am JST, November 6
• 8:45 am NZT, November 6

Source: Rocket Lab