How did Rocket Lab's Electron rocket get to 99 launches, and why is the 100th flight a milestone?

Electron's 99th mission deployed a radar satellite for Japan's iQPS — Rocket Lab's 20th launch of 2026 — and the 100th flight is targeted for around November 14. Why cadence, not size, is the small-rocket story.

Small rockets rarely make headlines, but cadence is a story of its own. Short answer: Rocket Lab's Electron flew its 99th mission, nicknamed "The Sea God Surveys," lifting a radar-imaging satellite for Japan's iQPS into a 575 km orbit from New Zealand. It was Rocket Lab's 20th launch of 2026 and its 10th for iQPS — and the 100th Electron flight is targeted for around November 14.Why it matters: Electron's whole idea is that small satellites should not have to wait for a spare seat on a giant rocket.

Flying often, on the customer's own schedule, is the business — and every flight is also a testbed for the much bigger Neutron rocket Rocket Lab is developing.1. Dedicated small launch means one customer, one orbit, one schedule — the reason iQPS keeps coming back for its radar constellation.2. Watch the 100th flight as the maturity marker: a hundred launches turns a startup rocket into infrastructure that other companies plan around.Pro tip: with small launchers, count flights per year, not payload records — cadence is what brings prices down.