Rocket Lab Electron
Where it stands: Rocket Lab's Electron has now flown 99 missions: the 98th, 'We're Not Hawking Around,' placed HawkEye 360's Cluster 16 and all three satellites in orbit, and the 99th, 'The Sea God Surveys,' launched on November 2 carrying Japan's QPS-SAR-20 (WADATSUMI-II). Its payload deployment was confirmed, giving QPS Inc a tenth successful Electron launch and satellite contact. Watch next for the customer and date of Electron's 100th launch.
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- 2026-11-02launch 99 is away — "The Sea God Surveys" launched from LC-1A, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand, carrying QPS-SAR-20 (WADATSUMI-II), Japan's 10th iQPS Earth-observation radar satellite for QPS Inc, one flight before the 100th Electron launch milestone (NSF — x.com/NASASpaceflight). Development of the November 1 scheduled date; watch: payload-deployment confirmation, the 100th flight's customer and date, and the November 9 Q3 print. tags: rocket-lab, launch
AI image - 2026-11-02 (mission success): the launch-99 outcome is confirmed full — payload deployment from Electron's Kick Stage is confirmed for QPS-SAR-20 (WADATSUMI-II), Rocket Lab's tenth launch for QPS Inc's constellation at 100% mission success, and QPS has established contact with the satellite (Rocket Lab statement via Jeff Foust — x.com/jeff_foust; Traders Union adds the contact and the 5.8% share close at $51.50 — tradersunion.com/news). Development of the same-day liftoff report; watch: the 100th Electron launch's customer and date, and the November 9 Q3 print.
- 2026-11-01launch 99 gets its name, its customer and its date — "The Sea God Surveys," Rocket Lab's 99th Electron flight, is scheduled to lift off from LC-1 in New Zealand on November 2 at 16:41 UTC, carrying Japan's 10th iQPS radar satellite for QPS Inc, the flight directly ahead of the 100th Electron launch (Tech Times — techtimes.com/articles; Rocket Lab announcement via Jeff Foust — x.com/jeff_foust). Development of the October 23 "We're Not Hawking Around" record — Electron's 98th flight, HawkEye 360's Cluster 16 aboard, all three payloads on orbit; watch: the November 2 outcome, then the 100th-flight milestone's customer and date. tags: rocket-lab, launch
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October 2026 · 4 updates
- 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
- 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.
- 2026-10-20 Rocket Lab's next mission, "We're Not Hawking Around," is scheduled for Wednesday, October 21, 2026, the exact-date first after prior coverage carried wet-dress-rehearsal completion and a "ready" status without an attempt date; the article frames the launch pad — not the balance sheet — as what now sets the tone for the stock, and does not name the vehicle (ad-hoc-news, ad-hoc-news.de/boerse). Watch: the Wednesday flight's outcome and any readout tying it to the Electron cadence ledger, whose push toward a 100th Electron launch went on file October 13.