Electron mission cadence: the launch record
Where it stands: Electron's mission-by-mission launch record, kept apart from Rocket Lab's financing and the Iridium combination: mission names, outcomes, and the small-customer constellation flights as they land.
- 2026-10-23 the October 23 Hawkeye 360 mission gets its name and its confirmed outcome — "We're Not Hawking Around," Electron's 98th launch and the company's 19th of 2026, placing three "Hawk" signals-intelligence satellites in orbit with payload deployment confirmed, all three on orbit, and Rocket Lab citing three dedicated Hawkeye 360 flights at 100% mission success (MarketScreener — marketscreener.com/news; Jeff Foust RT of Rocket Lab — x.com/jeff_foust; NSF RT — x.com/NASASpaceflight). Development of the October 21 telemetry-review pause and the same-day demand-side record (SpaceX passing on three military missions); watch: whether the military missions convert to named Neutron orders, and the November 9 Q3 print.
- 2026-10-26 (~2:30 PM ET — x.com/NASASpaceflight): "Round 2!!" at the Rocket Lab Space Structures Complex, Middle River, Maryland — more Neutron hardware moved to the lagoon for loading onto the barge, the second staging wave after the day's opening thrust-module load. Development of the October 21 Stage-2 barge-shipment record; watch: the barge's departure and Wallops arrival, the Wallops fluid-system tests and Archimedes vacuum engine install, the November 9 Q3 print. tags: rocket-lab, launch
- 2026-10-26 (~4:20 PM ET, Satnews — satnews.com/2026): the October 23 Electron flight gains its customer-mission name — HawkEye 360's Cluster 16, confirmed successfully launched to expand the radio-frequency geolocation constellation. Development of the October 23 "We're Not Hawking Around" record (Electron's 98th flight, three payloads deployed, all on orbit); watch: Cluster 16's on-orbit checkout and the November 9 Q3 print. tags: rocket-lab, launch