WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite for a Japanese company March 14, the first of eight such missions Rocket Lab has under contract with that customer.The Electron rocket lifted off from Pad B of Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 8 p.m. Eastern. The payload, the QPS-SAR-9 satellite, separated from the kick stage nearly an hour later after being placed into a planned orbit of 575 kilometers at an inclination of 42 degrees.The satellite is the latest for the…
