Ten Owl Of Ten: Rocket Lab Launches Japanese Earth-imaging Radar Satellite For Synspective

Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket for the "Ten Owl of Ten" mission on Friday (June 26), at 1743 UTC from Launch Complex-1 (LC-1) in New Zealand. The mission delivered Synspective's 10th StriX synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite into a low Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 552 kilometers and an inclination of 42 degrees.

Electron's second stage separated about 2 minutes, 40 seconds after liftoff today, with the third or "kick" stage taking over about nine minutes into flight. Payload separation occured about 45 minutes later, around T+1 hour after liftoff.

This launch marked Rocket Lab's 12th mission of 2026 and the 10th dedicated launch for the Japanese Earth-imaging company, which has been Rocket Lab's sole launch provider since 2020. The StriX satellites, named after a genus of owls, are equipped with 5-meter SAR antennas that enable Earth observation in all lighting conditions and through cloud cover, supporting urban planning, infrastructure monitoring, and disaster response.

Each Strix satellite weighs about 100 kg, and stretches to 5 meters wide with its SAR antenna fully deployed. Each satellite has an on-orbit lifespan of about five years, according to Synspective's website. The spacecraft cruise in LEO between 15 and 45 degrees of inclination.

The mission is part of Synspective's plan to deploy a 27-satellite constellation by 2030, with 17 additional launches already booked for Electron. The launch also coincided with NASA selecting Rocket Lab for three future Electron launches for the PolSIR and TSIS-2 missions starting in 2027.