WASHINGTON - Rocket Lab has signed yet another contract with Japanese radar imaging company iQPS, because apparently the first 18 launches just weren't enough to satisfy their satellite cravings.

On July 30, Rocket Lab announced a deal for three Electron launches of iQPS's radar-imaging satellites, scheduled to start in late 2027. Each launch will lift off from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, delivering an iQPS satellite into a tidy 575-kilometer low Earth orbit.

This marks the third multi-launch agreement between the two companies in the past year alone. In April, they signed a contract for three Electron launches, and last October, they inked another three-launch deal. At this point, it's less a business relationship and more of a recurring subscription.

Including these latest awards, Rocket Lab has now been contracted for 18 Electron launches total. Seven of those have actually happened, most recently in December. The remaining 11 are presumably in various stages of "we'll get to it eventually."

Rocket Lab was supposed to launch another iQPS satellite on June 30 from Launch Complex 1, but the engines ignited and then promptly thought better of it, aborting the liftoff. Rocket Lab has been characteristically tight-lipped about the reason, and the launch hasn't been rescheduled yet. iQPS, in its own statement, optimistically says its next launch is planned for no earlier than August.

iQPS - which stands for Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, not a new flavor of ramen - is building a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites. The company aims to have 24 satellites in orbit by May 2028, and 36 by 2030. Because if you're going to spy on Earth from space, you might as well do it comprehensively.

The iQPS contract news comes just three days after Rocket Lab announced a Space Force contract worth up to $266 million for up to 18 launches of the suborbital variant of Electron, called HASTE. That's the company's largest launch award to date, proving that government contracts are still the most reliable way to make space companies happy.