Rocket Lab Corporation (Nasdaq: RKLB) said on July 30, 2026 that it has signed its third multi-launch deal in under a year with Japanese synthetic aperture radar operator Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS) — three more dedicated Electron missions that push the total number of iQPS launches booked on Rocket Lab's small-lift vehicle to 18.
Three More Dedicated Electron Missions From Late 2027
Under the new contract, each mission will lift a single QPS-SAR satellite to a 575 km low Earth orbit from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand starting in late 2027. Rocket Lab's own Motorized Lightband satellite separation system has been purchased for every iQPS mission, letting the Japanese operator pair rocket and dispenser through a single vendor and reducing scheduling risk.
QPS-SAR: A 36-Satellite Radar Constellation
iQPS is building a 36-satellite SAR constellation that will deliver near-real-time radar imagery of almost any point on Earth roughly every ten minutes. Each QPS-SAR small satellite carries a large deployable X-band antenna and produces images using radio-wave measurements, letting it operate in any weather and at any time of day — capabilities that traditional optical Earth-observation satellites cannot match.
The Japanese operator has placed seven QPS-SAR satellites on orbit through Electron with 100% mission success since 2023, most recently the KUSHINADA-I, YACHIHOKO-I and SUKUNAMI-I missions in the second half of 2025.
Electron Dominates The Small-Lift Manifest
The iQPS booking follows a busy stretch for Electron. Rocket Lab has been layering national security wins, commercial deals and hypersonic tests onto Electron's manifest and previously said 2026 would exceed its record-breaking 2025 launch year. Announcing the deal, Rocket Lab framed the new missions as evidence that Electron is "the world's most sought-after small-lift launch vehicle" for constellation build-out work — where precise, timely deployment matters more than raw payload mass.
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Reporting based on coverage from Rocket Lab, GlobeNewswire and Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space.