Rocket Lab completes its 7th launch for Japanese company iQPS
Rocket Lab this evening successfully completed its 7th launch of a radar satellite for Japanese company Q-Shu Pioneers (iQPS), its Electron rocket lifting off from one of the two launchpads in New Zealand.
Q-Shu has signed Rocket Lab to do eleven launches total, so expect four more launches next year.
In 2025 Rocket Lab also completed three launches of its HASTE version of Election, which is designed to do suborbital hypersonic tests for the Pentagon. If we count these, the company has completed 21 launches in 2025. And even if we don’t count these suborbital launches, Rocket Lab has now launched more times than any other private company, except for SpaceX.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
168 SpaceX
85 China
18 Rocket Lab (a new record)
15 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 142.
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 this evening successfully completed its 7th launch of a radar satellite for Japanese company Q-Shu Pioneers (iQPS), its Electron rocket lifting off from one of the two launchpads in New Zealand.
Q-Shu has signed Rocket Lab to do eleven launches total, so expect four more launches next year.
In 2025 Rocket Lab also completed three launches of its HASTE version of Election, which is designed to do suborbital hypersonic tests for the Pentagon. If we count these, the company has completed 21 launches in 2025. And even if we don’t count these suborbital launches, Rocket Lab has now launched more times than any other private company, except for SpaceX.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
168 SpaceX
85 China
18 Rocket Lab (a new record)
15 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 142.
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
The pace has been good.
Six launches in a single quarter is a record for them, and the last three were all within a 7 day window.
That is near SpaceX pacing.
I do not think they have payload ready to to continue that pace, but the have demonstrated they can do it.
At least for short periods.
I think that they had wished for one more in that mix as well, but that rocket scrubbed twice.
The second time at T-0.
I am guessing that one will not be seen again until next year.
20 months ago, April 2024, Rocket Lab stock could be had for less than $4/share. Closed today at $77/sh. And no, I didn’t buy it then.