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Rocket Lab Secures Multiple Launches with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Two Electron launches from New Zealand will deploy JAXA’s RAISE-4 spacecraft and a rideshare of eight satellites, showcasing Japan’s cutting-edge satellite technologies and origami-inspired deployable antenna.
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Rocket Lab Corporation, a global leader in launch services and space systems, announced it has signed a direct contract for two dedicated Electron launches with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) – signifying the criticality of Electron to international space agencies requiring responsive launch and dedicated access to space.
Launching from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, the two Electron missions will deploy satellites for JAXA’s Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program. The first launch, scheduled for December 2025, will deploy the agency’s RApid Innovative payload demonstration SatellitE-4 (RAISE-4) spacecraft, a single satellite that will demonstrate eight technologies developed by private companies, universities, and research institutions throughout Japan.
The second launch, scheduled for 2026, is a JAXA-manifested rideshare of eight separate spacecraft that includes educational small sats, an ocean monitoring satellite, a demonstration satellite for ultra-small multispectral cameras, and a deployable antenna that can be packed tightly using origami folding techniques and unfurled to 25 times its size.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, said: “It’s an incredible honour 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. Japanese satellite operators have long turned to Electron for its reliability and responsiveness since its earliest launches - whether it's constellation-building for Japan’s new wave of commercial satellite operators, or bespoke missions requiring responsive mission planning and highly accurate payload deployment.”
Rocket Lab is a launch leader for the Japanese space industry, with more than two dozen dedicated missions booked to fly on Electron through to the end of the decade. These include constellation deployment missions for satellite operators iQPS and Synspective, in addition to the multiple launches already completed this year with 100% mission success.
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