'The Sea God Surveys': Watch Rocket Lab launch Japanese Earth-observing satellite today

space.com Nov 2, 2026

‘The Sea God Surveys’: Watch Rocket Lab launch Japanese Earth-observing satellite today

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Nov 2, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

Rocket Lab is set to lift off its 99th mission, an Electron launch from the company’s Mahia Peninsula site in New Zealand, during a window opening at 11:30 a.m. EST on Nov. 2. The flight, dubbed “The Sea God Surveys,” will deploy an Earth‑observing synthetic‑aperture‑radar (SAR) satellite for Japan’s iQPS, the firm’s tenth payload for the operator. iQPS is building a 36‑satellite SAR constellation in low‑Earth orbit, enabling imaging through clouds and at night. This launch marks Rocket Lab’s 90th Electron flight and its 99th overall mission, while the company also operates the suborbital HASTE vehicle, which has completed nine flights since its 2023 debut. Live coverage will be streamed by Rocket Lab and, if available, Space.com for fans worldwide in real time.

💡 Why It Matters

· By expanding iQPS’s SAR constellation, the launch boosts global high‑resolution, all‑weather imaging capacity, a capability increasingly vital for climate monitoring and disaster response.

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What is Starshield? A look at SpaceX’s military satellite network

SpaceX operates two distinct satellite constellations: the commercial Starlink service and the classified Starshield network for national‑security customers. In October 2026, Ukrainian drone operators reported that Starshield terminals lost high‑speed connectivity above 160 km/h, disrupting defensive operations against Russian drones until service was restored on Oct. 24, according to President Zelenskyy. Starlink, with more than 11,000 satellites, provides broadband to consumers, enterprises and governments in over 160 countries. Starshield, announced in Dec 2022, uses the same bus but adds hardened hardware, secure software and additional payloads for intelligence, surveillance and missile‑defense communications. The U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $2.29 billion contract for the MILNET backbone, and the company has secured multibillion‑dollar deals with the U.S. military for Starshield services, though many details remain classified.

💡 The outage exposed how dependent modern warfare has become on private, militarized space assets, underscoring the strategic risk of relying on a single commercial provider for critical defense communications.

space.com · Nov 1

NASA’s Swift space telescope is about to crash to Earth. Where will…

NASA’s Swift space telescope, launched in 2004 to study gamma‑ray bursts, is set to reenter Earth’s atmosphere uncontrolled after a failed rescue attempt. Its orbit has decayed to 171 miles, and the 3,300‑pound observatory entered safe mode before operations were terminated. Experts predict Swift will largely disintegrate, with only a few dense components potentially reaching the ocean or land. The reentry will occur over a narrow band near the equator, covering parts of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

💡 The event underscores the growing frequency of uncontrolled reentries as satellite constellations expand, highlighting the need for robust debris monitoring and public risk communication.

space.com · Nov 1

On this day in space! Nov. 1, 1962: The Soviet Union Launches…

On November 1, 1962, the Soviet Union launched Mars 1, its fourth attempt to reach the Red Planet. After separating from its launch vehicle, the probe deployed solar panels and began a cruise toward Mars. Mission control detected a leak in a gas valve that controlled attitude, disabling the spacecraft’s orientation system. Consequently, Mars 1 lost contact roughly halfway to the planet and failed to complete its fly‑by. The mission marked the USSR’s first near‑Mars approach, though it ended in failure.

💡 The launch underscored the technical hurdles of interplanetary travel and highlighted the USSR’s persistent pursuit of space leadership during the Cold War.

space.com · Nov 1

Planetary defense: How military and civil satellites are watching fireballs to help…

On April 1, a meteor exploded over the South Atlantic near Argentina, observed by U.S. military satellites and the GOES‑E and Meteosat Third Generation Imager‑1 satellites. The fireball peaked at about 60 mi altitude, providing data on its brightness and trajectory. The event illustrates the value of combining military and civil sensor data to characterize bolides and assess potential space‑debris impacts, enhancing planetary‑defense knowledge. Similar recent fireballs, such as those over Alaska and Australia, have been studied with multi‑sensor networks to refine impact models.

💡 The coordinated use of military and civilian sensors offers a more complete picture of atmospheric entry events, improving the accuracy of impact risk assessments and informing future planetary‑defense strategies.

space.com · Nov 1

5 bright planets to spot in November — when and where to…

November offers an exceptional planet‑watching window for Northern‑hemisphere observers, with five bright worlds prominently displayed in the evening and pre‑dawn skies. Saturn dominates the southern evening sky, its rings tilted about 6½° toward Earth, while Mars and Jupiter rise together around midnight in the east‑northeast and drift eastward after Mars overtakes Jupiter on Nov. 16. Venus climbs higher each morning, reaching a peak magnitude of –4.9 near the end of the month and aligning closely with the star Spica on Nov. 3 and Nov. 19. Mercury emerges from solar conjunction after Nov. 4, achieving its greatest western elongation (≈20°) on Nov. 20 and becoming visible before astronomical twilight from Nov. 16‑26. The article provides a detailed schedule, noting the Nov. 1 daylight‑saving rollback that creates a 25‑hour day.

💡 The alignment of multiple planets with bright stars creates rare, low‑light spectacles that draw both amateur and professional astronomers to the sky, boosting public engagement with observational astronomy.

techcrunch.com · Oct 31

Satlyt takes another step toward turning satellites into space data centers

Satlyt, a startup founded by former Google and SpaceX engineer Rama Afullo, demonstrated its orbital data‑center software in a NASA‑funded test earlier this month. The experiment, conducted with the University of Houston, used a single onboard computer to simulate a network of four hosts, four users and eight services, assigning tasks based on available compute and communication links. The software generated a processing plan and returned results to Earth, proving it can schedule workloads in orbit. Satlyt already has its code running on three satellites and aims to link multiple spacecraft so users only set permissions, priorities and limits. Further trials will examine inter‑satellite data transfer, security and fault recovery as the company pursues broader validation and eventual commercial missions.

💡 By enabling satellites to share processing power, Satlyt could cut down latency for time‑critical observations, turning space assets into real‑time analytics platforms rather than mere data relays.