Rocket Lab launches private Earth-observing radar satellite to orbit (video)

Rocket Lab launched its sixth mission for the Japanese Earth-imaging company iQPS this afternoon (Nov. 5) from its seaside pad in New Zealand.

view from the second stage of a rocket in earth orbit. the rocket's orange-hot engine nozzle is visible in the foreground; in the background is the sea and a slice of greenish land — The view from the second stage of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket during its Nov. 5, 2025 launch, which lofted an Earth-observing satellite for the Japanese company iQPS. The Electron's first stage is visible falling back to Earth in the distance. (Image credit: Rocket Lab)

"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," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description. "iQPS aims to build a constellation of 36 SAR satellites that will provide near-real-time images of Earth every 10 minutes."

Yachihoko-I will be the 13th (not 14th, as it name implies) iQPS satellite to reach orbit to date. Seven members of the growing constellation have flown atop non-Electron rockets to date — India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, Japan's Epsilon and SpaceX's Falcon 9, to be specific.

a plume of grey smoke forms on the tip of a rocky island rising out of a wavy ocean — A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launches the "Nation God Navigates" mission for Japanese Earth-observing company iQPS from New Zealand on Nov. 5, 2025. (Image credit: Rocket Lab)

Yachihoko-I takes its name from the Japanese god of nation-building, according to Rocket Lab. That explains the moniker the company gave to today's mission: "The Nation God Navigates."

Today's launch was the 16th of 2025 for Rocket Lab and the company's 74th overall to date. The vast majority of these have been conducted by the 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron. Rocket Lab also operates a suborbital version of the vehicle known as HASTE ("Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron"), which has flown five times since debuting in June 2023.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 3 p.m. ET on Nov. 5 with news of successful liftoff, then again at 3:58 p.m. ET with news of successful satellite deployment.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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