WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron successfully launched a radar imaging satellite for Synspective Dec. 21, days after that Japanese company lifted off on the stock market.
The Electron rocket lifted off from Pad B of Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 9:17 a.m. Eastern. The launch was postponed a few days because of weather and a previous launch attempt was scrubbed Dec. 20 when the company reported an out-of-family reading with an unspecified sensor.
The Electron’s payload, a StriX synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite developed and operated by Japanese company Synspective, was deployed by the kick stage into sun-synchronous orbit nearly an hour after liftoff.
The launch was the sixth StriX satellite for Synspective, all on Electron rockets. The company signed a contract with Rocket Lab in June for 10 additional Electron launches from 2025 through 2027. Rocket Lab said at the time that the contract, whose value was undisclosed, was the largest launch contract it had signed to date.
The launch was the 16th and final Electron mission of the year for Rocket Lab. That total includes 14 orbital launches and two launches of the suborbital variant of Electron, called HASTE, conducted Nov. 24 and Dec. 13 from Wallops Island, Virginia.
The 16 launches far exceeds the company’s previous annual record of 10 launches set last year, but falls short of estimates the company made earlier this year of conducting 22 launches. Rocket Lab later scaled back that estimate to 15 to 18 launches, citing customer delays.
“We look forward to continuing to increase our launch cadence in the new year as we strengthen Electron’s position as the leading small rocket globally, and also enter the medium launch market with Neutron’s debut,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a post-launch statement.
Synspective IPOThe launch was the first for Synspective since the company went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market Dec. 19. The company announced plans to sell 21.3 million shares, with an overallotment of nearly 3.2 million shares, at 480 yen ($3.07) per share.
Shares soared in the first day of trading Dec. 19, opening at 736 yen before declining somewhat, closing at 635 yen. Shares were largely unchanged in trading Dec. 20. That price gives the company a market valuation of about 69.5 billion yen.
The company plans to use the funds raised from the initial public offering, as well as a $44 million Series C round raised in June, to build out a constellation of 30 SAR satellites by the late 2020s. The company opened a factory in September to enable mass production of satellites. Documents filed as part of the IPO process show that the company is considering using SpaceX rideshare missions to launch some future satellites in addition to its contract with Rocket Lab.
Synspective is not yet profitable. According to documents it filed for the IPO, the company reported sales of nearly 1.4 billion yen in 2023, but recorded a net loss of more than 1.5 billion yen. Through the first nine months of 2024, the company had 1.6 billion yen of sales but a net loss of nearly 2.2 billion yen.