The Lightning God Reigns

“The Lightning God Reigns” launched from Rocket Lab’s private orbital launch site, Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, in New Zealand on March 15, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. NZDT (00:00 UTC)

The mission launched a single synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite to a 575km circular Earth orbit for iQPS called QPS-SAR-9 (nicknamed “SUSANOO-I”). The spacecraft joined iQPS’ growing Earth-imaging constellation that delivers high-resolution monitoring from specific locations every 10 minutes. 

‘The Lightning God Reigns’ was the first of eight upcoming launches for iQPS across 2025 and 2026 to build out iQPS‘s constellation, and follows the Company’s earlier successful mission for iQPS launched in December 2023. Each upcoming mission includes a Rocket Lab Motorized Lightband, used to separate and deploy the satellite from Electron once in space.