Watch Rocket Lab launch ‘Finding Hot Wildfires Near You’ mission from New Zealand today

Rocket Lab is gearing up for the next launch of its workhorse Electron rocket.

The New Zealand-based company completed a ‘wet dress rehearsal’ on Monday, March 24, fueling up the launch vehicle for a run-through of its countdown ahead of the “Finding Hot Wildfires Near You” mission.

Electron will launch “Finding Hot Wildfires Near You” from Pad B at Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1, Mahia, New Zealand. Liftoff is expected sometime during a 30-minute window that opens at 11:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) March 26 — with a local time of 4:30 a.m. NZT, March 27. The three-stage rocket is scheduled to release its payloads just under an hour after launch, where the satellites will begin their synchronized alignment. A livestream of the launch will be available on Rocket Lab’s website, the top of this page and on the Space.com homepage.

Soon to be on their way to orbit aboard Electron are eight wildfire detection satellites from German-based company OroraTech.

The small fleet will join a constellation of thermal infrared imaging spacecraft already in space, which will enable OroraTech to monitor wildfires and wildfire hotspots around-the-clock across the globe. These Phase 1 satellites, as OroraTech has designated them, will orbit at a steep 97-degree inclination, at an altitude of 340 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth, and are the humble beginning in a constellation the company hopes to grow to over 100 in the next five years.

“Finding Hot Wildfires Near You” is a rapid turnaround mission for Rocket Lab and OroraTech, who scheduled the mission for liftoff only four months ago. The expediency allows the company’s constellation to get up and running just before wildfire season begins.

This will be Rocket Lab’s fifth launch of 2025, with another expected within the next few weeks. That mission, DART AE, will liftoff using the company’s HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) vehicle, a suborbital version of Electron, to test hypersonic drone technology for the U.S. Defense Department.

Josh Dinner is the Staff Writer for Spaceflight at Space.com. He is a writer and photographer with a passion for science and space exploration, and has been working the space beat since 2016. Josh has covered the evolution of NASA’s commercial spaceflight partnerships and crewed missions from the Space Coast, as well as NASA science missions and more. He also enjoys building 1:144-scale model rockets and human-flown spacecraft. Find some of Josh’s launch photography on Instagram and his website, and follow him on X, where he mostly posts in haiku.