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'The Sea God Surveys': Watch Rocket Lab launch Japanese Earth-observing satellite today
Liftoff will occur during a window that opens at 11:30 a.m. ET.
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Rocket Lab will launch its 99th mission to date today (Nov. 2), and you can watch the action live.
An Electron rocket is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site today, during a window that opens at 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT; 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 local New Zealand time),
The mission, which Rocket Lab calls "The Sea God Surveys," will carry an Earth-observing radar satellite for the Japanese company iQPS. You can watch it live via Rocket Lab starting about 30 minutes before launch, and Space.com will carry the company's feed if, as expected, it's made available.
"The Sea God Surveys" will be Rocket Lab's 10th launch to date for iQPS, which is assembling a constellation of three dozen synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
SAR satellites offer advantages over those that view our planet in optical wavelengths. They can peer through cloud cover, for example, and study our planet at night as well as during the day.
Today's launch will be the 99th overall for Rocket Lab and the 90th for the two-stage, 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron, which gives small satellites dedicated rides to space. The workhorse vehicle has already flown 16 times this year.
Rocket Lab's other nine launches to date have been conducted by HASTE, a suborbital version of Electron that allows customers to test their tech in the hypersonic flight environment. HASTE (short for "Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron") debuted in June 2023 and generally flies classified payloads.
Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.