When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launches the “Eight Days A Week” mission for Synspective from New Zealand on March 20, 2026. | Credit: Rocket LabRocket Lab will launch an Earth-observing radar satellite for the Japanese company Synspective early Friday morning (May 22), and you can watch the action live.An Electron rocket carrying one of Synspective’s Strix satellites is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab’s New Zealand site on Friday at 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT; 9:30 p.m. local New Zealand time), on a mission called “Viva La Strix.”AdvertisementAdvertisementYou can watch it live via Rocket Lab beginning at about 5:00 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT). Space.com will carry the feed if, as expected, the company makes it available.The patch for Rocket Lab’s “Viva La Strix” mission. | Credit: Rocket LabSynspective is building out a “synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging constellation over Japan that provides data for urban development planning, construction and infrastructure monitoring, and disaster response,” Rocket Lab wrote in a
