Rocket Lab’s Lightning God Reigns mission launches from Mahia

A bright light signals Rocket Lab's latest mission from its Mahia launch pad on Saturday afternoon. Mission number 62 was titled The Lightning God Reigns.

Latest mission accomplished. Straight to the next.

Rocket Lab has had no time to linger after its 61st mission was launched from its Mahia-based Launch Complex 1 on Saturday.

Mission number 62 was set to go just three days later – on Tuesday.

Saturday’s mission, titled The Lightning God Reigns, lifted off at 1pm NZT and was the company’s second for its Japanese customer the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc (IQPS)

In a statement, Rocket Lab said the mission “successfully deployed IQPS’ QPS-SAR-9 spacecraft to a 575km circular Earth orbit”.

“The mission follows Rocket Lab’s first launch for the company in December 2023, when Electron deployed another QPS-SAR satellite as part of IQPS’ newly established radar imaging constellation.”

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket heads for space after another successful launch.

“The Lightning God Reigns” is the first of eight new launches for IQPS as part of one of the largest Electron launch agreements to date.

“Five more launches are expected in 2025, with the remaining two scheduled for 2026,” Rocket Lab said.

“Each mission has been commissioned to build out IQPS’ planned constellation of up to 36 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. The constellation is capable of imaging the Earth day and night and through any weather to provide near real-time observation data for almost any location in the world.”

Mission Number 62 is called High Five and will deploy five satellites for French Internet of Things company Kinéis.