Rocket Lab (RKLB) shares rose 4.7% in premarket trading Thursday, a day after the space company announced its largest commercial launch agreement to date for its Electron rocket, a 20-mission contract with Japanese Earth observation company Synspective.

The multi-year agreement calls for Rocket Lab (RKLB) to launch 20 of Synspective’s StriX synthetic aperture radar satellites between 2028 and 2031. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The new contract brings the total number of Electron missions booked by Synspective to 47, making the Tokyo-based company Rocket Lab’s largest launch customer by mission count. The satellites will be deployed into sun-synchronous orbit from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.

For investors, the agreement adds significant long-term visibility to Rocket Lab’s launch business and pushes its launch backlog above 100 missions. The size of the order also demonstrates demand for dedicated small-satellite launches even as Rocket Lab invests heavily in Neutron, its larger reusable rocket intended to address a substantially bigger portion of the launch market.

Synspective is building a constellation of StriX satellites equipped with synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, which can collect imagery at night and through clouds and other weather conditions. The company aims eventually to provide observations of locations around the world within hours.

“When constellation builders want control over their destiny, they come to Rocket Lab,” founder and CEO Peter Beck said. “Signing twenty launches in a single deal is a massive vote of confidence not just in Electron, but in the launch cadence, mission reliability, and orbital precision that Rocket Lab consistently delivers.”

The missions are expected to take place annually from 2028 through 2031, giving Synspective dedicated launch capacity as it expands its constellation. Dedicated launches allow satellite operators greater control over deployment schedules and orbital destinations than rideshare missions carrying payloads for multiple customers.

The Synspective agreement follows several multi-launch awards for Rocket Lab this year. For shareholders, the key financial questions will be how the growing backlog translates into launch revenue and margins over the next several years and whether Electron can maintain a high launch cadence as Rocket Lab simultaneously develops and begins operations of Neutron.