Electron | iQPS Launch 16
Rocket Lab is targeting 2028 for Electron carrying iQPS Launch 16 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. Launch Library files only the year, so the date is a placeholder. The date is still provisional and can move.
COUNTDOWN
FLIGHT PLAN
There's no launch window filed yet. Current date is a placeholder or rough estimation based on unreliable or interpreted sources.
FIELD KIT / OPTICS
Where to start if you want a telescope for the back garden.
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Celestron Travel Scope 70 mm Refractor
A 70 mm scope on a light tripod that packs into its own backpack, so it's easy to take out. It shows craters on the Moon, Jupiter's four bright moons and the shape of Saturn's rings. The tripod is the weak part, so expect to steady it.
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Beginner Dobsonians
A big mirror on a simple rocker mount, with no motors to go wrong. This is a search, not one pick. Compare 130 mm and 150 mm models before you buy.
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Beginner refractors
Lighter and quicker to set up than a Dobsonian, but weaker on faint galaxies and nebulae. Worth a look if the scope has to live in a cupboard.
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LINKS AMAZON.COM
MISSION BRIEF
Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.
SOURCE: LAUNCH LIBRARY 2 // THE SPACE DEVS
LAUNCH CORRIDOR
- Due east
- The lowest inclination a direct launch from here can reach is 39.3°. That’s this pad’s own latitude. Flying east also gets the most free speed from Earth’s rotation.
- Due south
- The polar corridor, at 90° inclination, passes over both poles. It gets no help from Earth’s spin, so the same rocket can carry less.
Drag the globe to turn it. The shading is the real terminator, and it moves.
A globe of the Earth centred on Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 at latitude 39.26 degrees south, longitude 177.87 degrees east. Two curved lines leave the pad. The solid gold line runs due east and marks the lowest orbital inclination a direct launch from this site can reach, 39.3 degrees, equal to the pad’s latitude of 39.3 degrees. The dashed cyan line runs due south and marks the polar corridor at 90 degrees inclination. The darkened part of the globe is the night side. The surface wind is from 26° at 12 km/h. That's the cyan arrow at the pad.
LAUNCH SITE
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand
NO PAD DESIGNATION PUBLISHED FOR THIS FLIGHT
OBSERVED 2026-11-11 10:45:00Z // OPEN-METEO (CC BY 4.0) // GENERAL CONDITIONS, NOT LAUNCH CRITERIA
Minimum direct inclination 39°. This pad is 39° south of the equator, so a direct launch can't reach an orbit inclined less than 39°. An orbit of inclination i never passes over latitudes beyond ±i. Getting to an equatorial orbit, which geostationary satellites need, takes a 39° plane change at some point in the flight. Inclinations of 39° and up are reachable straight off the pad. The ground here moves east at about 360 m/s with Earth's spin. That's 465 m/s at the equator, falling with the cosine of latitude. A launch due east keeps that head start.
DATUM WGS-84 // EQUIRECTANGULAR PROJECTION // ORBIT FIGURES DERIVED FROM THE PUBLISHED LATITUDE
Open this pad in a mapPAD CONDITIONS
SURFACE WIND @ 10 M
12km/h
Blowing from the north-north-east, bearing 26 degrees
GUSTING
25km/h
Mainly clear
SOURCE: OPEN-METEO CC BY 4.0
The observed figures are general weather at the coordinates of Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1. They aren’t the launch rules. The operator and the range write those for each mission, and they cover things this forecast doesn’t carry, like electric fields, cloud layers higher up and winds along the rocket’s path. Only the operator publishes them. Wind often stops a countdown, but no number here is a limit for this flight. Nothing here is a go or no-go call. No operator figure was published for this attempt.