The Owl’s Night Begins – Spaceflight Now

September 22, 2026

Breaking News

[ September 21, 2026 ] SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster arrives at pad ahead of first orbital Starship launch Mission Reports
[ September 19, 2026 ] Russian Progress cargo ship arrives at International Space Station News
[ September 19, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Falcon 9
[ September 15, 2026 ] SpaceX launches national security payload for U.S. Space Force from Vandenberg Falcon 9
[ September 15, 2026 ] Avio launches pair of climate monitoring European spacecraft to study plants, oceans and atmospheric changes News

Rocket Lab closes out year with launch of Synspective’s first radar satellite

December 15, 2020 Stephen Clark

Rocket Lab’s seventh and final launch of the year delivered a small radar observation satellite into orbit for Synspective, a Japanese startup planning a fleet of 30 or more Earth-imaging spacecraft providing day-and-night imagery of cities around the world.

Live coverage: Rocket Lab launches Japanese radar satellite

December 15, 2020 Stephen Clark

Rocket Lab launched a radar imaging satellite Tuesday for the Japanese company Synspective. The small Earth observation payload lifted off from New Zealand at 5:09 a.m. EST (1009 GMT) aboard an Electron rocket. Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the Electron’s first stage on this mission.