Past launch
Launched successfully
Raise and Shine (RAISE-4)
Electron, flown by Rocket Lab
Launches / Electron
Electron, flown by Rocket Lab
This was Rocket Lab's 19th launch of 2025, and its 77th in all.
Counting every operator, it was the 304th orbital launch attempt anywhere in 2025, and the eighth from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B.
Rocket Lab
RAISE-4 (RApid Innovative payload demonstration Satellite-4) is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) satellite for on-orbit demonstrations of 15 demonstration components and equipment selected by public solicitation. The satellite will be operated in response to requests from the demonstration theme proposers, and will provide experimental data of the demonstration devices and environmental data during the experiments. 6 of the demonstration payload, as well as as well as 4 cubesats originally planned to ride on the same launch vehicle, are re-flight of those planned for RAISE-3, which failed to reach orbit in October 2022. The launch vehicle was switched from Epsilon-S to Rocket Lab's Electron due to continuous testing problems with the Epsilon-S' 2nd stage motor. The original 8 hitch-hiking cubesats will be launched on another Electron rocket later.
Electron is a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle (with an optional third stage) developed by the American aerospace company Rocket Lab. Electron is a small-lift launch vehicle designed to launch small satellites and cubesats to sun-synchronous orbit and low earth orbit. The Electron is the first orbital class rocket to use electric-pump-fed engines, powered by the 9 Rutherford engines on the first stage. It is also used as a suborbital testbed (called HASTE) for hypersonics research.
93 flights, 89 of them successful. 7 boosters brought back from 9 attempts.
Rocket Lab is an American aerospace manufacturer with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. The company develops lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services. The Electron Program was founded on the premise that small payloads such as CubeSats require dedicated small launch vehicles and flexibility not currently offered by traditional rocket systems. Its rocket, the Electron, is a light-weight rocket and is now operating commercially. The company is also producing a variety of spacecrafts and spacecrafts components.
93 launches so far, 89 of them successful. The last 52 in a row went to plan.
It went up from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand.
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