Rocket Lab launched five "Internet of Things" satellites on Saturday (Feb. 8).
A 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron rocket carrying five spacecraft for the French company Kinéis lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site at 3:43 p.m. EST (2043 GMT; 9:43 a.m. Feb. 9 local New Zealand time).
Rocket Lab at first planned to launch the satellites on Feb. 3 but stood down to ensure the mission had no risk of interfering with other spacecraft in orbit — that "it's safe to merge onto the space highway," the company wrote on X.
The launch was the fourth of five that Rocket Lab is conducting to build out Kinéis' 25-nanosatellite constellation in low Earth orbit.
Related: Rocket Lab launches 5 IoT satellites on landmark 50th mission (video)
Once that constellation is fully up and running, the French company will be able to "connect any object from anywhere in the world and transmit useful data from these objects to users in near real time," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description.
"This data is a decision-making tool that can be used to optimize activities while reducing risks, thanks to three essential functions: tracking, monitoring and alerting," the company added.
The five Kinéis satellites were set to be deployed into a 401-mile-high (646 kilometers) circular orbit 66.5 minutes after launch.
"IOT 4 You and Me" was Rocket Lab's first launch of 2025. In 2024, the California-based company launched a total of 16 missions — 14 orbital flights with Electron and two suborbital jaunts with HASTE, a modified version of the rocket that helps customers test hypersonic technology.
