Faced with growing competition from startups entering the field, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems is looking to reduce costs on its existing Pegasus and Minotaur rockets.
An Orbital ATK Minotaur-C rocket successfully launched two sets of satellites for Earth observation company Planet Oct. 31 in what was effectively the return to flight of a vehicle that failed in its two previous missions.
Following a decision to pull eight Spire commercial cubesats from an Orbital ATK Minotaur 4 launch from Cape Canaveral Aug. 26 carrying a military payload, the U.S. Air Force says it and other government agencies are crafting clear procedures on how to handle such future rideshare agreements.
An Orbital ATK Minotaur 4 rocket lifted off from Cape Canveral, Florida, early Saturday morning, carrying the U.S. Defense Department's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS)-5 satellite. The launch comes as a debate is flaring up again about whether companies should be able to use converted surplus intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) motors to launch commercial satellites
A planned new generation of polar-orbiting U.S. military weather satellites could be small enough to launch on Minotaur rockets, as opposed to the much larger — and far more expensive — Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets.
Orbital Scienecs said the Minotaur-C is a commercial variant of the Minotaur rocket that the company has been using for U.S. government satellite launches since 2000. The company said it is designing a new SkySat satellite dispenser that will hold up to six Skybox satellites per launch
When NASA’s Glory spacecraft plunged into the Pacific Ocean in 2011, scientists were concerned they would have no way to prevent a lengthy gap in their observations of solar energy, the primary driver of Earth’s climate.
Astrotech reported higher revenue and operating profit for the three months ending Sept. 30 compared to a year ago on the strength of increased launch services to commercial customers.
The U.S Air Force successfully launched an experimental Defense Department satellite and 28 secondary payloads Nov. 19 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
Galle also addressed TAS’s recent settlement with the U.S. State Department that ended a years-long investigation by U.S. authorities of TAS’s sales of communications satellites to China, or to customers that use China’s Long March launch vehicle.
The U.S. Air Force has ordered a Minotaur 1 launch vehicle from Orbital Sciences Corp. to support a 2013 launch the ORS-3 Enabler mission for the Defense Department’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, according to an Orbital Sciences press release issued April 3.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s experimental Tactical Satellite (TacSat)-4 communications satellite was successfully launched Sept. 27 aboard a Minotaur 4 launch vehicle from the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp.’s Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island, according to the U.S. Air Force.
The U.S. Air Force plans to launch the ORS-1 intelligence and surveillance satellite June 28 atop a Minotaur 1 rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, an Air Force official said June 24.
NASA could save millions of dollars by using Minotaur rockets to launch the Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) spacecraft and several other medium-class science missions planned through 2020, according to a Feb. 17 report by the NASA Office of Inspector General.
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on Feb. 6 successfully launched a classified small satellite aboard a Minotaur 1 rocket out of Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the NRO announced Feb. 6.
NEW YORK — A rocket carrying seven different satellites, including one that will attempt to deploy a small solar sail into orbit, successfully blasted off from an island in Alaska Nov. 19.
