The American-New Zealand company Rocket Lab announced the signing of a contract with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It specifies two special launches of the Electron rocket.
The first mission commissioned by JAXA will be launched in December 2025. As part of this program, Electron will launch the RAISE-4 (RApid Innovative payload demonstration SatellitE-4) into orbit. This is an experimental vehicle that will demonstrate eight technologies developed by private companies, universities, and research institutes throughout Japan.
The second launch, scheduled for 2026, is a composite mission. As part of this mission, Electron will launch eight separate spacecraft into orbit, including small satellites for educational purposes, an ocean monitoring satellite, a demonstration satellite for ultra-small multispectral cameras, and a deployable antenna that can be tightly packed using origami folding techniques and expanded to 25 times its size.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, commented on the signing of the contract as follows: “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.”
We would like to remind you that the EscaPADE mission, built by Rocket Lab specialists on behalf of NASA, is scheduled to launch into space in the coming months. It consists of a pair of identical probes. Initially, the EscaPADE spacecraft will operate at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, and then head for Mars. There, they will study the atmosphere and magnetic field of the Red Planet.
According to Rocket Lab
