A Japanese Earth-observing satellite has reached its orbit five weeks after the originally scheduled date. The satellite, a radar satellite to be operated by Tokyo-based iQPS, was launched on board an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab in New Zealand. This is the second delayed attempt at the mission; Rocket Lab had tried to launch it on June 30 but canceled the attempt at the last minute. The company has not yet disclosed the reason for the cancellation.

According to “space,” everything went well during the journey, and the Electron rocket placed the iQPS satellite in its target orbit at an altitude of about 575 kilometers (357 miles) above Earth's surface.

The spacecraft, known as QPS-SAR-13 or MIKURA-I, after a Japanese deity associated with abundance and prosperity, will study our planet using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which can penetrate clouds and collect images day and night.

iQPS is building a constellation of 36 SAR satellites in low Earth orbit. The Electron rocket is the main launch vehicle for this network.

Today's mission was Rocket Lab’s 92nd mission, and its 13th in 2026. Most of these flights have used the Electron rocket, which stands 18 meters (59 feet) tall and is the company's main vehicle for launching small satellites.