WASHINGTON — A Japanese company developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites is the most recent to show to Rocket Lab after the bankruptcy of rival launch company Virgin Orbit.
Rocket Lab announced Aug. 17 that it signed a contract with Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS) for a dedicated launch of its QPS-SAR-5 satellite on a Electron rocket. That launch, on a mission called “The Moon God Awakens”, is scheduled for September from Launch Complex 1 in Recent Zealand.
The satellite was originally to launch on Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket under a contract announced in May 2022. On the time of the contract announcement, QPS-SAR-5 was scheduled for launch in early 2023, but had not yet launched when Virgin Orbit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April and later ceased operations.
Neither company mentioned Virgin Orbit’s bankruptcy directly within the announcement of the brand new contract, but did allude to it. “This is precisely the type of mission Electron was designed for and has delivered on time and time again: a customer urgently in search of dedicated launch to a novel orbit on a rapid timeline,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said within the statement.
Shunsuke Onishi, chief executive of iQPS, noted “the delay on account of status changes since our announcement of contract for QPS-SAR-5 in May last yr” but did in a roundabout way mention the Virgin Orbit situation. “We highly appreciate Rocket Lab and our team for all their efforts in arranging this recent launch contract as it is vitally meaningful for us to quickly deploy the satellites into orbit.”
Along with the delay launching QPS-SAR-5, iQPS lost two other satellites, QPS-SAR-3 and -4, when a Japanese Epsilon rocket failed to achieve orbit during an October 2022 launch. The QPS-SAR-6 satellite did make it to orbit as a part of SpaceX’s Transporter-8 rideshare mission in June. The corporate has long-term plans for a 36-satellite constellation capable of manufacturing SAR imagery at resolutions sharper than 50 centimeters.
The choice by iQPS to go together with Rocket Lab comes after NorthStar Earth and Space, a Canadian company developing a constellation to gather space situational awareness data, announced in June it could launch its first set of 4 satellites on an Electron after previously signing a launch contract with Virgin Orbit.
Rocket Lab has been the beneficiary of Virgin Orbit’s bankruptcy due to the lack of options for dedicated smallsat launches as other firms face technical or financial struggles. “We’ve seen defections from the entire aspirational launch providers,” Beck said in an interview in July. “The industry is shaking out.”
The iQPS contract is the ninth Electron launch the corporate has won this month. Rocket Lab announced Aug. 8 that it won a contract for five Electron launches of BlackSky’s Gen-3 imaging satellites starting in 2024. Per week later, NASA awarded Rocket Lab a task order under the agency’s Enterprise-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract for 2 Electron launches of its PREFIRE Earth science cubesats in May 2024. Rocket Lab also announced a contract Aug. 8 for the suborbital version of Electron, called HASTE, for an undisclosed customer.
Rocket Lab has not disclosed the worth of any of those contracts but said in its Aug. 8 earnings call it had a goal launch cost of $7.5 million for the Electron. The corporate also reiterated its forecast of 15 Electron launches this yr, of which it has accomplished seven.
Rocket Lab’s next launch, of a Capella Space SAR satellite, was postponed from late July and early August because of surprising data from an engine sensor. The launch is now scheduled for Aug. 23 in a four-hour window that opens at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.