Separate Electron Payloads Include Single Satellite And Rideshare

Rocket Lab Corp., based in Long Beach, California, announced it has secured a contract for two dedicated launches of its Electron rocket for JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The missions will deploy satellites for JAXA’s Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program.

Both missions will launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The first, scheduled in December 2025, will deploy JAXA’s RApid Innovative payload demonstration SatellitE-4 (RAISE-4) spacecraft. It is a single satellite that will demo eight technologies developed in Japan by private companies, universities, and research institutions.

The second launch is scheduled in 2026 and will be a JAXA-manifested rideshare of eight separate spacecraft that includes an ocean monitoring satellite, a demo satellite for ultra-small multispectral cameras, a deployable antenna that is packed using origami folding and unfurls to 25x its size, and small educational satellites.

Sir Peter Beck, Founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, said, “It’s an incredible honor to be entrusted by JAXA to further their goals of innovation and development for Japan. These missions are a demonstration of Electron’s global importance - supporting the growth of Japan’s space industry with launch on a U.S. rocket from a New Zealand launch site – and we’re proud to be entrusted to deliver them.

“Japanese satellite operators have long turned to Electron for its reliability and responsiveness since its earliest launches - whether its constellation-building for Japan’s new wave of commercial satellite operators, or bespoke missions requiring responsive mission planning and highly-accurate payload deployment.”

Rocket Lab is a prime launch operator for the Japanese space industry and has booked more than two dozen dedicated missions on Electron for JAXA through the end of the decade.

FMI:  rocketlabcorp.com/