Rocket Lab and China complete three satellite launches

Rocket Lab and China completed three satellite launches on 23 and 24 October. Electron carried three HawkEye 360 spacecraft from New Zealand, while two Long March rockets carried seven Yaogan satellites from Taiyuan and Jiuquan.

HawkEye 360's satellites detect and characterise radio signals. CASC says the Yaogan spacecraft support scientific experiments, land surveys, crop estimates and disaster prevention and response.

Electron deployed three radio-sensing satellites

Rocket Lab's mission release records the We're Not Hawking Around launch at 8:11pm local time on 23 October. Electron carried three HawkEye 360 satellites from Launch Complex 1 towards a 520km low-Earth orbit.

HawkEye 360 says its operations team established communications with all three spacecraft after deployment and began commissioning. The company’s Cluster 16 is designed to expand its radio-frequency collection capabilities.

The satellites operate as a group to detect and characterise radio signals. The mission was Electron’s 98th launch and Rocket Lab’s 19th launch of 2026, according to the provider.

Two Long March flights followed from China

CASC's Taiyuan announcement records the Yaogan 50-03 launch at 6:15pm Beijing time on 23 October. The Long March 6A delivered the spacecraft to its planned orbit. CASC describes uses including land surveys, crop estimates and disaster prevention and response.

The Jiuquan announcement records a Long March 4B launch at 3:25am Beijing time on 24 October. It carried Yaogan 53-07 through 53-09 and Yaogan 56-19 through 56-21: six spacecraft in total.

The three launches carried ten satellites

These three missions carried ten spacecraft altogether. SpaceX's Starlink 15-15 flight also launched 27 satellites from California on 23 October.