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TechQuick newsArchive no. TE-0004 · · updated · Reading time: 30 sec

Rocket Lab puts Synspective’s 13th StriX radar satellite into orbit

On 26 September an Electron placed the 13th radar satellite of Japan’s Synspective into orbit, seven days after the 12th: at this pace, the launch manifest reads like a railway timetable.

Primary source: Rocket Lab, press release of 26 September 2026Verified in French
Subcategories
Bright streak of an Electron rocket in the night sky, photographed in a long exposure from Nuhaka (New Zealand)
Archive image: an Electron lifting off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on 28 June 2022 (CAPSTONE mission), seen from Nuhaka, New Zealand.Yourong F. Wang, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

On 26 September 2026 at 00:39 UTC, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1, in New Zealand, on the mission “Owlright Owlright Owlright”. It placed the 13th StriX satellite of Japanese company Synspective into a 559 km low orbit, a radar imaging spacecraft designed to observe the Earth in all weathers. Synspective has confirmed that the satellite reached its target orbit and deployed; several months of commissioning tests are due to precede its entry into service.

This was Electron’s 97th flight and its 18th of the year, one week after the launch of the 12th StriX on 19 September 2026. According to Rocket Lab, 14 launches remain scheduled to complete the constellation by the end of the decade.

Sources

  1. Rocket Lab, MISSION SUCCESS: Rocket Lab Launches 97th Electron Mission, 26 Sept 2026 (primary source)
  2. Synspective, Synspective's 13th SAR Satellite Successfully Reaches Target Orbit and Spreads Its Wings, 26 Sept 2026 (primary source)
  3. Rocket Lab, MISSION SUCCESS: Rocket Lab Launches 96th Electron Mission, 19 Sept 2026 (primary source)
  4. Tech Times, Rocket Lab Electron Nears 100 Flights on Synspective SAR Mission Tonight, 25 Sept 2026
  5. CNES (GEODES), Sentinel-1
  6. Esri (documentation ArcGIS Pro), Présentation du radar à synthèse d'ouverture

Image and video credits

  • Archive image: an Electron lifting off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on 28 June 2022 (CAPSTONE mission), seen from Nuhaka, New Zealand.: Yourong F. Wang, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Corrections

  • : Updated: Synspective announces that the satellite reached its target orbit and deployed, without detailing the deployment of the antenna; clarification of the duration of the tests, definition of synthetic aperture radar expanded, sources consolidated (duplicate and weak source removed, press release for the 12th launch and French sources added).

All corrections on the site →

— The Bunker archivists

Method: at least 3 sources including the official one, cross-checked with the help of an AI (Claude), checked and approved by a human on 28 Sept 2026 in the French original; this English version is an AI translation. Our method
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Read the original in French