Rocket Lab will launch a Japanese technology-demonstrating satellite tonight (Dec. 6), and you can watch the action live.
A 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron rocket is scheduled to launch the "RAISE and Shine" mission from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site tonight at 10 p.m. EST (0300 GMT and 4 p.m. local New Zealand time on Sunday, Dec. 7).
"RAISE and Shine" is the first flight that Rocket Lab has contracted directly with JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). It's part of a two-flight deal with the Japanese space agency; the second mission is a rideshare launch scheduled for early next year.
The California-based company has a long history with Japan overall, however, launching more than 20 missions to date for companies based in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Today's launch will send JAXA's Rapid Innovative payload demonstration Satellite-4, known as RAISE-4, to a circular orbit 336 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth.
The satellite's full name tells us broadly what it will do up there. RAISE-4 "will demonstrate eight technologies developed by private companies, universities, and research institutions throughout Japan," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description.
"RAISE and Shine" will continue a record-breaking year for Rocket Lab, which has launched 18 missions in 2025 so far, all of them successful. Fifteen of them have been orbital flights. The other three were suborbital launches with HASTE, a modified version of Electron designed to help customers test hypersonic technologies in the final frontier.
Rocket Lab's previous single-year launch record was 16, set in 2024.
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