The Minotaur is a family of United States solid-fuel launch vehicles derived from retired Minuteman and Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Built by Northrop Grumman under the U.S. Space Force's Rocket Systems Launch Program, the vehicles are used for orbital and suborbital missions.
The Minotaur family consists of four primary variants: the Minotaur I, used for launching small satellites into low Earth orbit; the Minotaur II, used primarily as a suborbital target vehicle; the Minotaur IV, a small-lift orbital launch vehicle; and the Minotaur V and Minotaur VI, capable of higher-energy missions including geostationary transfer orbit and trans-lunar trajectories. Minotaur I and II are derived from the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM, while Minotaur IV, V, VI and the cancelled Minotaur III are based on the LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM.
Vehicles
Minotaur-C (Taurus)
The Taurus launch vehicle, later renamed[1] Minotaur-C (for "Minotaur-Commercial"), was the first of the Minotaur family and the first ground-launched orbital booster developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC). It was derived by adding a solid booster stage to the air-launched Pegasus rocket.
The first flight, sponsored by DARPA, occurred in 1994. Following a series of failures between 2001 and 2011, the vehicle was rebranded as Minotaur-C in 2014. Due to restrictions on the commercial use of government-furnished hardware, Minotaur-C is the only Minotaur vehicle available for commercial launches.
Minotaur I
The original Minotaur launch vehicle consists of an M55A1 first stage, SR19 second stage, Orion 50XL third stage, Orion 38 fourth stage, and an optional HAPS fifth stage for velocity trimming and multiple payload deployment. It can deliver 580 kg to a 185 km orbit at 28.5° inclination from Cape Canaveral
Launch statistics
Rocket configurations
Launch sites
Launch outcomes
Launch history
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
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- colspan="8" style="background:white;" |
1994
! scope="col" | Flight No. ! scope="col" | Date and time (UTC) ! scope="col" | Rocket configuration ! scope="col" | Launch site ! scope="col" | Payload ! scope="col" | Orbit ! scope="col" | Customer ! scope="col" | Launch outcome ! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" |1 22:32
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- March 13, 1994
- Minotaur-C
Planned launches
See also
- Dnepr, a converted Soviet ICBM often used for commercial satellite launches
- Modified Minotaur IV (Ascent Abort-2), Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2), was a suborbital flight to test the Launch Abort System (LAS) of NASA's Orion spacecraft. The suborbital flight used a modified Minotaur IV, launched July 2, 2019, at 11:00 UTC from CCAFS SLC-46. The suborbital flight was a success.
External links
References
- Stephen Clark, "Taurus rocket on the market with new name, upgrades", Spaceflight Now, February 24, 2014^
- Minotaur Encyclopedia Astronautix^
- Minotaur IV Orbital Sciences Corporation^