Rocket Lab - Electron - The Wisdom God Guides - LC 1 - Mähia, NZ - December 21, 2025

Launch Date: December 21, 2025
Launch Time: 19:36 NZST, 1:36 a.m. EST, 0636 UTC, 07:36 CET
Launch Status: Nominal orbit insertion

Launch Provider: Rocket Lab, USA
Launcher System: Electron Rocket
Mission: The Wisdom God Guides
Contractor: iQPS - Japan
Launch Location: Launch Complex-1 - Mähia Peninsula, New Zealand

Price: $7,5 million (Standard mission to LEO)
Rocket Height: 18 m
Payload to Orbit: LEO 320 kg
Lift-Off Thrust: 224 kilonewtons
Fairing: Diameter 1,2 m / Height 4,05 m
Stages: 3

‘The Wisdom God Guides’ Electron launch for iQPS is scheduled for liftoff from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand during a launch window that opens on December 21, 2025. The launch will deploy QPS-SAR-15, nicknamed SUKUNAMI-I for the Japanese god of great wisdom, to a 575km circular Earth orbit.

The mission will be Rocket Lab’s sixth launch for iQPS in 2025 alone (and the seventh launch overall) to deploy the company’s constellation, highlighting the streamlined operational benefits and schedule control that Rocket Lab’s launch service provides satellite operators. Rocket Lab is the primary launcher for iQPS’s commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) constellation, which is being developed and deployed rapidly to provide high-resolution, near-real-time SAR imagery to its global users. A further five Electron launches for iQPS are planned from 2026.


The launch marks Rocket Lab's 79th mission overall and the 21st of 2025.