Watch Rocket Lab launch private Japanese radar satellite to orbit tonight

Rocket Lab will launch a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for the Japanese Earth-imaging company iQPS tonight (Aug. 4), and you can watch the action live.

An Electron rocket carrying the QPS-SAR-12 satellite, nicknamed Kushinada-I, is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site tonight at 11:45 p.m. EDT (0345 GMT and 3:45 p.m. local New Zealand time on Aug. 5).

Rocket Lab will stream the action live beginning 30 minutes before launch. Space.com will carry the feed as well, if, as expected, the company makes it available.

If all goes according to plan tonight, the Electron will deploy Kushinada-I into a circular orbit 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth about 54 minutes after launch.

The satellite will "join the rest of the QPS-SAR constellation in providing high-resolution synthetic aperture radar images and Earth-monitoring services globally," Rocket Lab wrote in a description of the mission, which it calls "The Harvest Goddess Thrives." (The name is a reference to Kushinada, a Japanese goddess of harvest and prosperity.)

As its formal name suggests, QPS-SAR-12 will be the 12th iQPS satellite to reach orbit. The Japanese company aims to operate a constellation of 36 SAR spacecraft, which can peer through clouds and study Earth's surface at night as well as during the day.

"The data gathered by QPS-SAR constellation has the potential to revolutionize industries and reshape the future," Rocket Lab wrote in the mission's press kit, which you can find here.

"By leveraging insights from moving object data, iQPS can unlock new economic value, enhance urban safety and security, and provide predictive analytics for agriculture, national economies, and regional markets when integrated with weather, market, and economic data," the company added.

"The Harvest God Thrives" will be Rocket Lab's fifth mission for iQPS and the 69th overall flight to date for the 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) Electron, which gives small satellites dedicated rides to orbit.

Rocket Lab also operates a suborbital version of Electron called HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron), which serves as a testbed for hypersonic technology. And the company is developing a larger rocket called Neutron, which could debut later this year.