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100 launches! Rocket Lab sends Earth-observing satellite to orbit on milestone mission (photos)

An Electron rocket topped with a private Japanese Earth-observing satellite lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Saturday (Nov.

✦ Extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting•From 1 source•1 min read•Updated November 13, 2026, 8:00 PM UTC
Key points
  • The first stage of Rocket Lab's Electron rocket falls back to Earth during "The Mountain God Rises" mission on Nov.
  • "It's an unprecedented milestone for a commercial small-lift orbital rocket, and a threshold rarely crossed in modern spaceflight," Beck said on Monday (Nov.

The mission, which Rocket Lab called "The Mountain God Rises," was a big one: It marked the 100th launch to date for the California-based company.

And it hit the century mark on Saturday in record-breaking fashion: No commercially developed rocket has gotten there faster, not even SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9, according to Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck.

Additional details
  • Electron is all dressed up for launch 100," Rocket Lab said via X on Tuesday (Nov.
  • (Image credit: Rocket Lab) Rocket Lab launched for the first time in May 2017, sending the brand-new Electron up on a test flight from New Zealand.
  • That effort failed, but Electron bounced back on its second-ever liftoff, delivering several cubesats to low Earth orbit (LEO) in January 2018.
  • And all went to plan on the mission: Electron's upper "kick stage" deployed a single iQPS spacecraft 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth.
  • Not all of Rocket Lab's missions have gone orbital, it should be noted: A suborbital variant of Electron known as HASTE, which customers use to test technologies in a hypersonic flight environment, has nine missions under its belt to date.

How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →

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Space.comNovember 13, 2026, 8:00 PM UTC →

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