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On January 29, 2026, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched South Korea’s NEONSAT-1A satellite from New Zealand. Image source: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab launched a South Korean disaster monitoring satellite from New Zealand on Thursday (January 29), about six weeks later than originally planned.
59 feet tall (18 meters tall) electronic Rocket launches ‘Bridge Swarm’ mission rocket labIt was published on the New Zealand website at 8:21pm on Thursday (0121 GMT, 2:21pm local time in New Zealand on January 30).
This was the second attempt to lift off the Swarm. The first one will be held on December 15th last second abort. Even that attempt was delayed a bit; Rocket Lab originally targeted December 10 but later delayed it for additional inspections.
On January 29, 2026, when South Korea’s NEONSAT-1A satellite was launched from New Zealand, the first stage of Electron fell back to Earth. Image source: Rocket Lab
The Bridge Group launched a payload for the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
The payload is NEONSAT-1A, “Advanced Earth Observation satellite Equipped with a high-resolution optical camera,” Rocket Lab wrote in a report Task description.
“KAIST’s NEONSAT constellation is designed to capture near-real-time monitoring of natural disasters on the Korean Peninsula and is the result of a collaboration between multiple Korean academic, industrial and research institutions, including SaTReC, which is leading the system design and engineering of the project,” the company added.
NEONSAT is not yet a constellation. Previously, only one satellite from the program had arrived low earth orbit — NEONSAT-1, flying on Electron April 2024.
The NEONSAT program is funded by the Korean government (i.e., the Ministry of Science and ICT). (ICT stands for “Information and Communications Technology.”)
Thursday’s launch goes according to plan: Electron’s “launch phase” Deploying NEONSAT-1A About 54 minutes after launch, it was flying freely 336 miles (540 kilometers) from our planet.
“Bridging The Swarm” is Rocket Lab’s Second launch in 2026 This is the 81st time so far. The company launched 21 missions last year, setting a new Rocket Lab record.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:30 pm ET on January 29 with news of the successful liftoff, and then again at 12:25 pm ET on January 30 with payload deployment.
