2000-004

Minotour

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