Rocket Lab Sends HawkEye 360’s Cluster 16 Into Orbit on 98th Electron Flight

Rocket Lab launched three HawkEye 360 satellites from New Zealand early Friday, placing Cluster 16 in low Earth orbit on Electron’s 98th flight. The cluster will provide dedicated capacity for an undisclosed customer supporting defense, intelligence and security missions.

Electron lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at 3:11 a.m. ET (0711 UTC) Friday, Oct. 23. The satellites reached an orbit 520 kilometers above Earth at a 97-degree inclination. The flight was Rocket Lab’s 19th launch of 2026 and its third Electron mission dedicated to HawkEye 360.

The three satellites made up Cluster 16. After deployment, HawkEye 360’s operations team established contact with all three and began commissioning them. The launch marked the start of that process; no completion was announced.

Cluster 16’s antenna technology is designed to support simultaneous radio-frequency signal collection and mission-data downlink. In other words, the satellites are designed to gather signals while sending mission data back to Earth. Clusters 15 and 16 are the first HawkEye 360 satellites designed with this capability.

Cluster 15 launched aboard SpaceX’s Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission on Oct. 20, three days before Cluster 16. The three-satellite clusters collect radio-frequency data used to track maritime activity, detect GNSS jamming, monitor radar, map communications and support space defense.

“Cluster 16 advances both the capability and flexibility of our constellation,” said HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini. The company’s operations team has begun commissioning the newly deployed satellites.