ELECTRON ROCKET LAUNCH - The Lightning God Defends (iQPS Launch 8)

Video from the channel Space Orbit about Electron, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 59:16. Language: Portuguese. Video type: Livestream.

Live Portuguese-language coverage from the Brazilian channel Space Orbit following the launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from New Zealand on the mission The Lightning God Defends (iQPS Launch 8), using the company's official feed with live commentary. The payload is an Earth-observation satellite with synthetic aperture radar for Japan's iQPS, bound for low Earth orbit. The commentator explains that this type of radar captures images day or night and even through cloud cover, and reviews the launcher's specs: about 18 m tall, 1.2 m in diameter, three stages, and a payload capacity of about 300 kg; he adds that it is Electron's 14th flight of the year. A large part of the broadcast is spent chatting with the chat, discussing the channel's own matters, and commenting on other programs, such as a static-fire engine test on Starship's Ship 41 and Rocket Lab's plans to build two launch pads in Alaska for hypersonic military launches.

With an 80% favorable weather forecast and the rocket loaded with kerosene and liquid oxygen, the countdown reaches zero and the Electron lifts off. At around 40 s of flight it is at about 3 km altitude; it passes through Max Q, the moment of maximum aerodynamic load, at around 12 km and 1,500 km/h. The first stage shuts down near 7,000 km/h and separates; the commentator notes that the rocket is expendable and that nothing returns to the ground. The second stage's Rutherford engine ignites and fairing separation is confirmed, though the camera freezes and it can't actually be seen. Afterward the second stage jettisons two of its three batteries, now depleted. Second-stage cutoff comes at around 26,900 km/h, followed by separation of the kick stage, a small module with its own engine that performs the orbit's final adjustment.

According to the broadcast, the Electron reaches the planned orbit and the mission proceeds successfully up to that point. Satellite deployment is left for later, after about 50 minutes of the kick stage's coasting flight, and it is not shown before the broadcast ends.