Rocket Lab sets new annual launch record for the company
Rocket Lab today set new annual launch record for the company, quickly scheduling and launching a payload for a “confidential commercial customer”, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of the company’s two launchpads in New Zealand.
This was the 15th orbital launch by Rocket Lab in 2025, beating the record of 14 the company set in 2025. Rocket Lab has also launched its HASTE suborbital version of Electron three times, so the company has actually completed the equivalent of 17 Electron launches this year, though three were not intended to reach orbit.
What made this launch unusual is that it was not announced in advance, and took place suddenly without revealing the customer. It is likely the customer was flying a classified military payload.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
151 SpaceX
71 China
15 Rocket Lab (a new record)
13 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 151 to 119.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Rocket Lab today set new annual launch record for the company, quickly scheduling and launching a payload for a “confidential commercial customer”, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of the company’s two launchpads in New Zealand.
This was the 15th orbital launch by Rocket Lab in 2025, beating the record of 14 the company set in 2025. Rocket Lab has also launched its HASTE suborbital version of Electron three times, so the company has actually completed the equivalent of 17 Electron launches this year, though three were not intended to reach orbit.
What made this launch unusual is that it was not announced in advance, and took place suddenly without revealing the customer. It is likely the customer was flying a classified military payload.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
151 SpaceX
71 China
15 Rocket Lab (a new record)
13 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 151 to 119.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News


It surprised me.
After other discussions about counting HASTE launches, and such, in a previous thread, I had checked Rocket Labs X feed, to see if they had another planned mission.
Nothing.
I opened my phone this morning, and the app was still open.
A refresh showed them at t-7 minutes-ish and counting for this mission.
The post had only been put up 4 hours before.
They had a minor glitch that held the launch.
The Launch director stated she had a data feed interruption (or something of the like) and called an abort under 2 minutes.
They ran checklist, and recycled in under 10 or 15 minutes, and then restarted the clock at t-12:00 mins.
This not only shows the responsive launch capability, but excellent work on the launch team to quickly recover from a minor problem on the fly.
One website shows a launch set no earlier than DEC 8. I think they will get at least one more this year.
If they continue the upward curve of launches and this level of performance, they get close to 100 by the end of 2026.
The responsive launch, within 4 hours of announcement should be big news. But the New Glenn announcement is taking attention.