Minotaur IV

Minotaur IV
	Launch of the first Minotaur IV Lite
Function	Expendable launch system
Manufacturer	Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems
Cost per launch	$50 million [1]
Size
Height	23.88 metres (78.3 ft)
Diameter	2.34 metres (7 ft 8 in)
Mass	86,300 kg
Stages	4
Capacity
Payload to LEO
Mass	1735 kg (28.5°, 185 km)
Associated rockets
Family	Minotaur
Derivatives	Minotaur V
Launch history
Status	Active
Launch sites	Vandenberg AFB, SLC-8; MARS, LP-0B; PSCA, LP-1; CCAFS, SLC-46
Total launches	7
Success(es)	7
First flight	22 April 2010
Last flight	15 July 2020
First stage – SR-118
Engines	1 Solid
Thrust	2,200 kilonewtons (490,000 lbf)
Fuel	Solid
Second stage – SR-119
Engines	1 Solid
Thrust	1,365 kilonewtons (307,000 lbf)
Burn time	54 seconds
Fuel	Solid
Third stage – SR-120
Engines	1 Solid
Thrust	329 kilonewtons (74,000 lbf)
Burn time	62 seconds
Fuel	Solid
Fourth stage (Baseline) – Orion 38
Engines	1 Solid
Thrust	32.2 kilonewtons (7,200 lbf)
Burn time	67.7 seconds
Fuel	Solid
Fourth stage (Optional) – Star-48V
Engines	1 Solid
Thrust	68.6 kilonewtons (15,400 lbf)
Burn time	84.1 seconds
Fuel	Solid

Minotaur IV, also known as Peacekeeper SLV and OSP-2 PK is an active expendable launch system derived from the LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM. It is operated by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, and made its maiden flight on 22 April 2010, carrying the HTV-2a Hypersonic Test Vehicle.[2][3][4] The first orbital launch occurred on 26 September 2010 with the SBSS satellite for the United States Air Force.

The Minotaur IV vehicle consists of four stages and is capable of placing 1,735 kilograms (3,825 lb) of payload into a Low Earth orbit (LEO).[5][6] It uses the first three stages of the Peacekeeper missile, combined with a new upper stage. On the baseline version, the fourth stage is an Orion 38. However a higher performance variant, designated Minotaur IV+, uses a Star-48V instead. A three-stage configuration (no Orion 38), designated the Minotaur IV Lite, is available for suborbital trajectories. The Minotaur IV has also been flown with multiple upper stages. A five-stage derivative, the Minotaur V, made its maiden flight on 7 September 2013.

Minotaur IV launches are conducted from SLC-8 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, LP-0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, SLC-46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska Pad 1 of the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA).

Launch history

Flight No.	Date/Time (UTC)	Variant	Launch Site	Payload	Trajectory	Outcome	Remarks
1	22 April 2010 23:00	Minotaur IV Lite	Vandenberg, SLC-8	HTV-2a	Suborbital	Success	Successful launch, but payload failed
2	26 September 2010[7] 04:41	Minotaur IV	Vandenberg, SLC-8	SBSS	SSO	Success
3	20 November 2010 01:25[7]	Minotaur IV HAPS	Kodiak, LP-1	STPSAT-2 FASTRAC-A FASTRAC-B FalconSat-5 FASTSAT O/OREOS RAX NanoSail-D2	LEO	Success	STP-S26 launch. Included a Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System (HAPS) to take the vehicle to a secondary orbit after placing payloads into the primary orbit.
4	11 August 2011 14:45[8]	Minotaur IV Lite	Vandenberg, SLC-8	HTV-2b	Suborbital	Success	Successful launch, but payload failed
5	27 September 2011 15:49	Minotaur IV+	Kodiak, LP-1	TacSat-4	LEO	Success	First Minotaur IV+ launch
6	26 August 2017 06:04	Minotaur IV / Orion 38	CCAFS, SLC-46	ORS-5	LEO[9]	Success	Ran in a 5-stage configuration, using an extra Orion 38 motor to put ORS-5 in to an equatorial orbit.
7	15 July 2020 13:46[10]	Minotaur IV / Orion 38	MARS, LP-0B	NROL-129	LEO[9]	Success	Carried four payloads (USA-305 to USA-308). First NRO launch on a Minotaur IV and first from Virginia's Space Coast.[11]

Planned launches

Date/Time (UTC)	Variant	Launch Site	Payload	Trajectory	Remarks
Late 2021[12]	Minotaur IV	MARS, LP-0B	NROL-174	?
TBD	Minotaur IV	Vandenberg, SLC-8	TacSat-5	LEO	Might launch on a Minotaur I
TBD	Minotaur IV Lite	Vandenberg, SLC-8	CSM	Suborbital

STP-S26

The third Minotaur IV launch, which was also known as STP-S26, deployed eight payloads. It was the 26th small launch vehicle mission in STP's 40-year history of flying DoD space experiments,[13] STP-S26 was intended to extend previous standard interface development efforts, implementing a number of capabilities aimed at enabling responsive access to space for small experimental satellites and payloads. STP-S26 launched at 01:25 UTC on 20 November 2010 from the Kodiak Launch Complex. The launch facility contractor was Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC). The payloads were released in a 650 kilometres (400 mi) orbit, before the HAPS upper stage was demonstrated by deploying two ballast payloads into a 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) orbit.

The primary objective of the STP-S26 launch was to deploy STPSAT-2 (USA-217), whilst demonstrating the ability of the Minotaur IV to carry additional payloads, by deploying FASTSAT, FASTRAC, RAX, O/OREOS and FalconSat-5. A Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System upper stage was flown aboard the Minotaur to demonstrate its ability to deploy payloads to multiple orbits, however only mass simulators were deployed after the HAPS burn.

The launch marked the first flight of a STP-SIV (Standard Interface Vehicle) satellite, the first use of the Multi Mission Satellite Operations Center Ground System Architecture (MMSOC GSA), the first flight of the Minotaur IV's Multi-payload Adapter (MPA), the first use of a HAPS to obtain multiple orbits on a Minotaur IV flight, the first Minotaur launch from Kodiak Launch Complex (KLC), and the first deployment of CubeSats from a Minotaur IV via Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployers (P-Pods).[13]

References

Stephen Clark (18 November 2010). "Minotaur rocket poised to send research to new heights". Spaceflight Now.
"Orbital Successfully Launches First Minotaur IV Rocket for U.S. Air Force" (Press release). Orbital Sciences Corporation. 27 April 2010.
"Air Force Space Officials Prepare To Launch First Minotaur IV". Air Force News Service. 16 April 2010. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012.
Graham, William (22 April 2010). "First Minotaur IV launches with Hypersonic Test Vehicle". NASAspaceflight.com.
"Minotaur IV Fact Sheet" (PDF). Orbital Sciences Corporation. 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
Krebs, Gunter. "Minotaur-3/-4/-5 (OSP-2 Peacekeeper SLV)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
Schaub, Michael B.; Schwartz, Patrick C. "Launches". Mission Set Database. NASA/Honeywell-TSI. Archived from the original on 20 March 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2010. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Hope, Dan. "DARPA Readies Hypersonic Aircraft for Mach 20 Launch Test". Retrieved 10 August 2011.
Clark, Stephen. "Minotaur rocket selected to launch military satellite in 2017". Spaceflight Now.
Clark, Stephen. "Launch Schedule". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
"NROL-129 Launch Press Kit" (PDF). NRO. Retrieved 9 July 2020. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Clark, Stephen. "Minotaur rocket successfully deploys four NRO satellites in orbit – Spaceflight Now". Retrieved 16 July 2020.
Brinton, Turner. "Air Force's STP-S26 Mission Loaded with New Technologies". SPACENEWS. Retrieved 8 December 2016.

External links

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[1] Stephen Clark (18 November 2010). "Minotaur rocket poised to send research to new heights". Spaceflight Now.

[2] "Orbital Successfully Launches First Minotaur IV Rocket for U.S. Air Force" (Press release). Orbital Sciences Corporation. 27 April 2010.

[3] "Air Force Space Officials Prepare To Launch First Minotaur IV". Air Force News Service. 16 April 2010. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012.

[4] Graham, William (22 April 2010). "First Minotaur IV launches with Hypersonic Test Vehicle". NASAspaceflight.com.

[5] "Minotaur IV Fact Sheet" (PDF). Orbital Sciences Corporation. 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2009.

[6] Krebs, Gunter. "Minotaur-3/-4/-5 (OSP-2 Peacekeeper SLV)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 4 March 2009.

[MSDB-7] Schaub, Michael B.; Schwartz, Patrick C. "Launches". Mission Set Database. NASA/Honeywell-TSI. Archived from the original on 20 March 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2010. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[8] Hope, Dan. "DARPA Readies Hypersonic Aircraft for Mach 20 Launch Test". Retrieved 10 August 2011.

[sfn20150709-9] Clark, Stephen. "Minotaur rocket selected to launch military satellite in 2017". Spaceflight Now.

[SFN20200703-10] Clark, Stephen. "Launch Schedule". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 4 July 2020.

[nrol-129-press-kit-11] "NROL-129 Launch Press Kit" (PDF). NRO. Retrieved 9 July 2020. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[12] Clark, Stephen. "Minotaur rocket successfully deploys four NRO satellites in orbit – Spaceflight Now". Retrieved 16 July 2020.

[spacenews-13] Brinton, Turner. "Air Force's STP-S26 Mission Loaded with New Technologies". SPACENEWS. Retrieved 8 December 2016.

Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara A5 Antares 230+ Ariane 5 Atlas V Ceres-1 Delta IV Heavy Electron Epsilon Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy GSLV Mk II Mk III H-IIA Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11^† Kaituozhe 2 LauncherOne Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 7 7A^† 8 11 Minotaur I IV V C OS-M1^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qased Rocket 3^† Safir Shavit Simorgh^† Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v Unha Vega Zenit 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque-1^†
In development	Amur Angara 1.2 Ariane 6 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Eris Firefly Alpha Beta H3 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 921 rocket 9 Miura 5 New Glenn New Line 1 Nuri OS-M2 OS-M4 Orbex Prime SLS Soyuz-7 SSLV Starship Terran 1 Vega C Vega E Vulcan Zero Zhuque-2
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 Ariane 1 2 3 4 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV Diamant Dnepr Energia Europa^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos 1 2I 3 3M Lambda 4S Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Saturn I IB V Scout SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
This Template lists historical, current, and future space rockets that at least once attempted (but not necessarily succeeded in) an orbital launch or that are planned to attempt such a launch in the future Symbol ^† indicates historical or current rockets that attempted orbital launches but did not ever succeed (never did or has performed a successful orbital launch)

Orbital launch systems developed in the United States
Active	Antares 230+ Atlas V Delta IV Heavy Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy LauncherOne Minotaur I IV V C Pegasus Rocket 3
In development	Firefly Alpha Beta New Glenn SLS Starship Terran 1 Vulcan
Retired	Antares 110/120/130/230** Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Conestoga Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" H-I* Juno I Juno II N-I* N-II* Pilot Saturn I IB V Scout Space Shuttle SPARK Sparta Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Vanguard
* - Japanese projects using US rockets or stages ** - uses Russian engines