
- Launch vehicle: Minotaur
- Payload: JAWSAT
- Launch date: 2000 Jan 27
- Launch site: V CLF
- Launch vehicle ID: 1
- First launch from the California Spaceport, a commercial
pad on a leased site at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The CLF (Commercial
Launch Facility) is near the SLC-6 complex on South Vandenberg. The
launch was the debut of the Orbital Sciences Minotaur, which uses
Minuteman and Pegasus/Taurus stages. The Minotaur is the space launch vehicle
for the USAF Orbital/Suborbital Program which uses refurbished hardware
for small missions; USAF refer to it with the acronym OSPSLV
(Orbital/Suborbital Program Space Launch Vehicle), which doesn't seem
any quicker to type than Minotaur.
- The Minotaur first stage is the M55A1 (Minuteman 2 stage 1); the second
stage is the Aerojet SR19 (Minuteman 2 stage 2). The third stage is the
Alliant Orion 50XL (Pegasus stage 2) and the final stage is the Orion 38
(Pegasus stage 3). The first three stages burned for 3 min 20 s, after
which the vehicle coasted to apogee and the fourth stage ignited at T+10
min 15s to enter a 746 x 810 km x 100.2 deg polar orbit. This is the
first orbital launch to use Minuteman hardware. The US has previously
used refurbished Thor, Atlas and Titan missiles as space launch vehicles.
Ref: #7(JR419), #7a, #79 - update: 08.06.08