Rocket Lab Corporation (NASDAQ: RKLB) launched its 93rd Electron rocket mission on August 21, 2026, deploying an Earth-imaging satellite for the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS) from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.

The mission, named "The Lightning God Defends," lifted off at 1:04 a.m. NZST and placed a QPS-SAR synthetic aperture radar satellite into a 575km low Earth orbit. The launch was the 14th Electron mission of 2026.

The deployment marked the ninth QPS-SAR satellite launched by Rocket Lab for iQPS, with the company stating a 100% mission success rate across all nine flights. Nine additional dedicated Electron launches remain under contract with iQPS to complete their constellation by 2030.