Rocket Lab launched a satellite for a mystery customer on Thursday morning (Nov. 20).
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a black and white rocket launches into a dark night sky (Image credit: Rocket Lab)
“Today’s ‘Follow My Speed’ mission marks 18 launches with 100% mission success for 2025 — more than any other year in Electron’s history — making our rocket the most frequently flown orbital small launch vehicle in the world,” the company said in another Thursday X post.
Fifteen of those 18 launches have been orbital missions. The other three were suborbital flights involving HASTE, a modified version of the 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) Electron that allows customers to test hypersonic technologies in the space environment.
Today’s ‘Follow My Speed’ mission marks 18 launches with 100% mission success for 2025 – more than any other year in Electron’s history – making our rocket the most frequently flown orbital small launch vehicle in the world.Here’s how we do it:🚀 High cadence launch sites🏭… pic.twitter.com/jPzhcLITkVNovember 20, 2025
We don’t know much about “Follow My Speed.”
Rocket Lab described the mission in vague terms only, saying that its goal was “to deploy a single satellite for a confidential commercial customer.”
Keeping things so close to the vest isn’t exactly odd for launch companies, who regularly loft national-security payloads or commercial satellites with sensitive, proprietary tech. Rocket Lab, for example, launched five satellites for a confidential customer just three months ago.