SkySat 8, SkySat 9, SkySat 10, SkySat 11, SkySat 12, SkySat 13, CPOD A, CPOD B, MinXSS 2, RANGE A, RANGE B, COPPER 2 - Minotaur-C XL (3210) - Vandenberg SLC-576E - 31.10.2017, 21:37 UTC

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Minotaur-C launches SkySat & Dove satellites

SciNews

Опубликовано: 31 окт. 2017 г.

Orbital ATK Minotaur-C launch vehicle launched six SkySat and four Dove satellites for Planet, from SLC-576E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on 31 October 2017, at UTC ( PDT). Approximately 13 minutes into flight, the ten Planet spacecraft will deploy into their targeted Sun synchronous orbit, 500 kilometers above the Earth.

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Planet‏Подлинная учетная запись @planetlabs 12 мин. назад

Successful launch & commissioning going as planned. Contact made with Doves & SkySats. Thanks to @orbitalatk & @30thspacewing

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 12 мин. назад

Our #MinotaurC successfully placed @planetlabs 10 satellites into orbit! Congrats to the entire team! @30thSpaceWing #OrbitalATKDelivers

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Jonathan McDowell‏Подлинная учетная запись @planet4589 4 мин. назад

One object cataloged from the Taurus launch so far, in a 500 x 527 km x 97.3 deg sun-sync orbit with 1314LT descending node.

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Gen. Jay Raymond‏ @AFSpaceCC 51 мин. назад

Congrats @OrbitalATK on the successful #MinotaurC launch! Thanks @30thSpaceWing & @AF_SMC for your great support. Well done, team!"

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http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1359408/vandenberg-launches-a-minotaur-c-rocket/

Vandenberg Launches a Minotaur-C Rocket
30th Space Wing Public Affairs / Published October 31, 2017

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --
The Orbital ATK Minotaur-C rocket, carrying 10 small satellites owned by Planet, launched from Space Launch Complex 576-E here Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 2:37 p.m. PDT.

Col. Greg Wood, 30th Space Wing vice commander, was the space launch commander.

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"This launch was an incredible achievement for Team Vandenberg, Orbital ATK, and our other launch partners," said Wood. "This Minotaur-C launch marked the first at Vandenberg in six years and I am very proud of the teamwork that led to this successful launch. The hard work and dedication of everyone involved continues to ensure our nation's access to space."

For questions about the Minotaur-C please contact Trina Patterson, Orbital ATK senior manager of communications, at (480) 814-6504.

For questions about the Planet satellites contact Trevor Hammond, Planet communications director, at (916) 607-0685.

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https://www.orbitalatk.com/news-room/feature-stories/Minotaurc_skysat_mission-page/

Mission Update

Orbital ATK successfully launched its Minotaur C rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on October 31 at approximately 2:37 p.m. PDT. The space launch vehicle deployed six SkySat and four Dove spacecraft, which will capture medium and high resolution multispectral imagery of Earth at unprecedented scale and frequency for the commercial market.

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Vandenberg Air Force Base:


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или

Vandenberg AFB Launches a Minotaur-C Rocket

30th Space Wing, Vandenberg AFB

Опубликовано: 31 окт. 2017 г.

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НОРАД обнаружил 11 объектов запуска - все TBA

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https://www.orbitalatk.com/news-room/release.asp?prid=299

Orbital ATK Successfully Launches Minotaur C Rocket Carrying 10 Spacecraft to Orbit for Planet
Made in California – Spacecraft Manufacturing, Rocket Integration and Launch

Dulles, Virginia 31 October 2017 – Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, announced its commercial Minotaur C rocket successfully launched 10 commercial spacecraft into orbit for Planet. The Minotaur C launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

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The rocket's first stage ignited at 2:37 p.m. (PDT), and just over 12 minutes later, Planet's six SkySat spacecraft began to deploy one at a time into their targeted sun synchronous orbit 310 miles (500 kilometers) above the Earth. Following deployment of the main satellites, Planet's four secondary Dove spacecraft deployed. From this orbit, the Dove and SkySat network of remote sensing satellites will deliver a global information feed to businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world.

"It's an honor to deliver reliable and affordable access to space for commercial customers like Planet," said Rich Straka, Vice President and General Manager of Orbital ATK's Launch Vehicles Division. "Launching small- and medium-class payloads on dedicated Orbital ATK launch vehicles gives commercial customers the ability to control their schedules while meeting challenging mission requirements."

The Minotaur C rocket is an all-commercial vehicle capable of launching payloads up to 3,500 lbs. The configuration that launched today included four solid rocket commercial motors: CASTOR 120®, Orion 50S XL, Orion 50 XL and Orion 38. Orbital ATK manufactured all four motors at facilities in Clearfield, Magna and Promontory, Utah. The company manufactured the avionics, software and separation systems at facilities in Chandler, Arizona. Integration of the Minotaur C rocket took place at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Planet's Dove and SkySat satellites, which are manufactured in California, are some of the most capable spacecraft per kilogram ever produced. A record-breaking 275 Dove satellites have been successfully deployed and operated in space and today collect more imagery per day than any other fleet of commercial satellites. The constellation of 13 SkySats is the world's largest commercial, sub-meter fleet of high-res satellites operating in space.

About Orbital ATK
Orbital ATK is a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies. The company designs, builds and delivers space, defense and aviation systems for customers around the world, both as a prime contractor and merchant supplier.  Its main products include launch vehicles and related propulsion systems; missile products, subsystems and defense electronics; precision weapons, armament systems and ammunition; satellites and associated space components and services; and advanced aerospace structures. Headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, Orbital ATK employs approximately 13,000 people across the U.S. and in several international locations. For more information, visit www.orbitalatk.com.

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 32 мин. назад

Orbital ATK Successfully Launches #MinotaurC Rocket Carrying 10 Spacecraft to Orbit for @planetlabs http://bit.ly/2gSGu7F 

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НОРАД зарегистрировал последний, 12-й, объект запуска (10 КА, посл. ст. РН, разделительная переборка)
 

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/10/31/ten-commercial-earth-observing-satellites-launched-aboard-minotaur-c-rocket/

Ten commercial Earth-observing satellites launched aboard Minotaur-C rocket
October 31, 2017 Stephen Clark


The Minotaur-C rocket fires away fr om pad 576E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: Orbital ATK

Returning to service after a six-year hiatus, Orbital ATK's revamped Minotaur-C rocket soared into space Tuesday from California's Central Coast with 10 commercial Earth-imaging spacecraft for Planet, a San Francisco-based company with a globe-spanning satellite fleet mapping the world's land masses every day.

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The 104-foot-tall (32-meter) rocket ignited its solid-fueled Castor 120 first stage booster at 2:37 p.m. PDT (5:37 p.m. EDT; 2137 GMT) Tuesday after a smooth countdown, quickly climbing away from pad 576E at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Powered by more than 400,000 pounds of thrust, the Minotaur-C pierced a broken deck of clouds as it headed south from Vandenberg and surpassed the speed of sound in less than 30 seconds. An Orion 50S XLT second stage motor took over about a minute-and-a-half into the flight as the rocket reached the rarefied upper layers of the atmosphere.

The Minotaur-C rocket is a rebranded, upgraded version of Orbital ATK's Taurus XL launcher, which last flew in March 2011, when it failed to put a NASA climate research satellite into orbit. The Taurus XL's payload fairing clung to the rocket, and the rocket was unable to overcome the unexpected extra weight and reach the required speed to enter orbit.

The rocket and its NASA-funded payload fell back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere, the second of two back-to-back Taurus launch failures blamed on faulty fairing separation mechanisms.

The fairing protects the rocket's payload from aerodynamic stress as it flies through the lower atmosphere.

NASA switched the launch of another Earth science satellite to a different rocket, leaving the Taurus program's future in doubt.

But Orbital ATK, then known as Orbital Sciences, redesigned parts of the fairing and modified the Taurus rocket's avionics systems, adding hardware demonstrated on the company's Minotaur 1 and Minotaur 4 rocket families. The Taurus XL also got a new name — the Minotaur-C — signifying it as a commercial variant of the Minotaur family.

An engineer calling out status updates during the launch confirmed separation of the clamshell-like fairing around three minutes after liftoff, soliciting cheers from employees and officials at the Vandenberg launch base.

The Minotaur-C launched Tuesday flew with a different fairing than the Taurus rockets launched in 2009 and 2011. The shroud spanned 92 inches (2.3 meters) in diameter, wider than the nose cones flown on the last two Taurus rockets.

Orbital ATK managers expressed confidence in the fairing going into Tuesday's launch. They said the Minotaur-C's fairing design was flight-proven in several recent missions, including a Minotaur 4 launch in August.

Once past the fairing separation milestone, two more solid-fueled Orion rocket motors fired in succession to place Planet's satellites into a near-circular polar orbit around 310 miles (500 kilometers) above Earth.

The Minotaur-C's upper stage passed out of range of a radio receiver at Vandenberg before the satellite deployments began, so the launch team had to wait until the spacecraft passed over another ground station to confirm the success of the final phase of the mission.

Six 242-pound (110-kilogram) SkySats separated first, followed by the deployment of four 10-pound (3-kilogram) Dove CubeSats.

Planet and Orbital ATK declared the launch a success about two-and-a-half hours later, and officials said all 10 satellites contacted ground stations as expected. The spacecraft were tracked in an on-target orbit inclined 97.4 degrees to the equator.


Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News

The SkySats will open covers on their imaging telescopes in the next few days to begin taking pictures. It will take a few weeks to commission the satellites and ready them for regular operations.

Built by Space Systems/Loral, each of the SkySats is about the size of a dorm room refrigerator — measuring 2.5 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet (95 by 60 by 60 centimeters). The Doves are built in-house by Planet and are roughly the size of a shoebox.

They join a fleet of approximately 190 satellites owned and operated by Planet, including around 172 that are actively imaging. Tuesday's mission marked the 20th launch with Planet satellites on-board, but the company's first dedicated rocket flight.

For Orbital ATK, Tuesday's success gives hope that the former Taurus program could have a future.

There are no more Minotaur-C launches on the books, but managers hope cost reductions and Tuesday's apparently flawless return-to-flight mission will catch the attention of prospective customers, such as NASA and commercial clients.

Officials said sharing engineering teams and components between the Minotaur, Minotaur-C and the company's air-launched Pegasus rocket will cut overhead costs.

"There are some Taurus components that remain in the system, but one of the reasons we changed the name was we're going to a more common avionics between our Minotaur program, the Minotaur-C, and the Pegasus to maximize the commonality and to really drive down cost," said Phil Joyce, Orbital ATK's vice president of small launch programs. "That's what we're all about at Orbital ATK, is driving down the cost of our small space launch offerings, and this is a step on that road."

Orbital ATK's future in the commercial launch market, at least for now, could hinge on proving the Minotaur-C's reliability and making the solid-fueled rocket affordable.

U.S. law prohibits Orbital ATK from selling Minotaur 1 and Minotaur 4 launch services to commercial customers because they use retired missile parts. Proponents of the law say lifting of the ban would give an unfair advantage to companies like Orbital ATK and slow development of new commercial rockets by undercutting their costs.

Orbital ATK has pushed to end the ban, which keeps the Minotaur 1 and Minotaur 4 rockets walled off from the commercial market and available only to launch U.S. military payloads.

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has netted new business in recent years, sometimes launching dozens of small satellites for companies and universities based in the United States, Europe and elsewh ere

Europe's Vega rocket, marketed by Arianespace, has also found a niche in launching small-sized Earth observation satellites, often for governments without a vibrant domestic launch capability, such as Vietnam, Peru, Morocco and Kazakhstan.

Orbital ATK wants to compete for those launch opportunities.


Artist's concept of SkySat satellites. Credit: Planet

The Minotaur rockets employing retired missile motors are less expensive than the Minotaur-C, even with Orbital ATK's latest cost reduction measures, Joyce said.

"We do see this part of the market as potentially very significant, so we're looking and continuing to evolve the Minotaur-C and its propulsion system to drastically reduce the cost of the classic Taurus to what we're going to be able to offer going forward," Joyce said in a pre-launch interview with Spaceflight Now.

Corporate executives touted the 2015 merger of Orbital Sciences and ATK as another way to achieve cost savings.

The Minotaur 1 uses two booster stages from decommissioned Minuteman missiles, and the Minotaur 4 family is powered by three rocket motors from the Peacekeeper missile program. Both versions of the Minotaur have commercially-produced upper stage motors to place satellites in orbit.

The Minotaur-C's first stage — called Stage 0 by Orbital ATK — is a Castor 120 rocket motor that is the commercial equivalent of a Peacekeeper first stage. Derivatives of Orbital ATK's Orion 50 and Orion 38 rocket motors did the rest of the job of climbing into orbit.

According to an Orbital ATK fact sheet, the Minotaur-C can haul up payloads of up to 3,214 pounds (1,458 kilograms) to an orbital altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers).

The commercially-produced rocket motors are more expensive to prepare for a launch than government-furnished missile components. Government oversight officials have conducted preliminary studies of how retired missile stages could be turned over to commercial launch providers, examining different ways to gauge the cost of the government-owned motors and charge companies for their use.

Orbital ATK has sold recent Minotaur 1 and Minotaur 4 missions to the U.S. Defense Department for less than $30 million. While financial details for Tuesday's mission were not disclosed, industry officials say a Minotaur-C launch costs between $40 million and $45 million.

"We're not going to get down in the price range of Minotaur ICBM launch vehicles with Minotaur-C, but having said that, a lot of the common avionics and other processes that we're starting to apply to all of our launch vehicles will bring down the cost of all of those," Joyce said. "The Minotaur launch vehicle with the propulsion systems provided the government for government payloads has that advantage."

Planet has already launched satellites on the Minotaur-C's would-be competitors like the PSLV, Vega and the Russian Soyuz rocket. The company's launch contract with Orbital ATK was originally reserved by Terra Bella, which Planet acquired from Google earlier his year.

Terra Bella, formerly known as Skybox Imaging, started the SkySat satellite program, while Planet's heritage lies in the Dove CubeSat constellation.


The six SkySats and four Doves were enclosed inside the Minotaur-C's payload fairing earlier this month. Credit: FAA/Orbital ATK

All the SkySat and Dove satellites launched to date have flown as secondary payloads, either aboard a rocket carrying larger spacecraft or as a piggyback on supply ships heading to the International Space Station.

"This is a launch contract that we inherited from originally Skybox, and then Terra Bella under Google, but for us to take over the final stretch, it's been wonderful working with Orbital ATK," said Mike Safyan, director of launch and regulatory affairs at Planet. "The level of professionalism, and all of the preparation activities and the level of attention that we get as a primary customer is quite different than when we're riding in the back seat as we usually do."

Small satellite owners like Planet would like to see more launch options for their spacecraft, particularly for dedicated rides. Several companies, such as Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit, are working on light-class launch vehicles sized to haul up to several hundred pounds into low Earth orbit, but neither have successfully reached orbit.

Customers with satellites hitching a ride on a larger rocket are at the mercy of their co-passengers. While satellite owners can find reduced launch costs on a rideshare mission, they run the risk of delays, and launch brokers cannot put all of the payloads in their perfectly-desired orbit. It's a tradeoff that challenges many satellite owners.

"One of the main advantages is control over schedule and control over the orbit, and that is a big deal for us," Safyan said.

Most of Planet's satellites are in sun-synchronous-type orbits that fly over imaging targets in the morning. The SkySats and Doves that went up Tuesday were positioned in orbits with afternoon coverage.

"Most remote sensing satellites, especially in optical, go into morning (orbits)," Safyan said. "For us to be able to say we want a special ride specifically to afternoon, which means that we further diversify our dataset from the rest of the competition, and to basically double the capacity of SkySats that we are flying, that's a really big deal."

At the request of Planet, the Minotaur-C rocket was nicknamed "Planet Express," a nod to the interplanetary delivery ship crewed by the main characters in the animated television series "Futurama."

Fueled by a non-toxic "green" propellant blend based on ammonium dinitrimide, the SkySats will spread out in orbit and enter service within a few weeks after launch, Safyan said.

Bradford ECAPS, the Dutch-Swedish company which builds the SkySat propulsion module, says the high performance green propulsion system offers better performance than conventional hydrazine maneuvering jets, and the units are easier to transport and prepare for launch.

The launch of six SkySats on Tuesday was the biggest deployment of satellites with "green" propulsion in history, officials said.

"There are different operating modes that the SkySats can do," he said. "They can target specific areas, or they can do more strip or area scanning, and they can do video. It's a really flexible, powerful system. We've been really pleased with the ones already in orbit, and it's going to be great to have six more."

The SkySats collect imagery with resolution as sharp as 2.6 feet (80 centimeters), an imaging resolution exceeded larger, more expensive satellites owned by companies like Airbus and DigitalGlobe. But the strength of the multi-satellite constellation is its revisit capability, allowing rapid refresh views of imaging targets around the world, and the video recording capability is a unique offering in the commercial remote sensing market.

Planet has launched nearly 300 satellites since 2013, some of which have ended their missions.


Artist's concept of a Dove satellite. Credit: Planet

Each Dove satellite can collect imagery of an area the size of Mexico each day, and the constellation together can map all of Earth's land masses in 24 hours. The Doves are designed for broader, medium-resolution imaging coverage, a complementary offering to the more detailed views provided by the SkySats.

While the SkySats are fitted with rocket thrusters to change their orbits, the Doves do not carry propulsion. They spread out with the help of aerodynamic drag, using their extendable solar panels as makeshift wings in the tenuous atmosphere still present in low Earth orbit.

Space Systems/Loral is building at least eight more SkySats, Safyan told Spaceflight Now. Two of them will launch from Vandenberg next year on a rideshare mission to sun-synchronous orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and Planet is still finalizing launch arrangements for the other six.

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https://www.planet.com/pulse/planet-doubles-sub-1-meter-imaging-capacity-with-successful-launch-of-6-skysats/

Planet Doubles Sub-1 Meter Imaging Capacity With Successful Launch Of 6 SkySats

Mike Safyan | October 31, 2017

Today, 6 SkySats (SkySat 8-13) and 4 Doves (Flock 3m) successfully launched on an Orbital-ATK Minotaur-C rocket destined for a Sun Synchronous, 500km orbit. Planet is happy to report that all 10 satellites were deployed successfully and that our Mission Control team has made contact with all satellites and begun the commissioning process.

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This marks the 20th launch for Planet and our first-ever dedicated launch, which gave us the ability to choose our orbital parameters and timing of the launch. We sent these 10 satellites to an afternoon crossing time of approximately 13:30 (1:30pm) to further diversify our product offerings. Most remote sensing satellites operate in morning-crossing configurations, including our currently on orbit set of 160+ Doves and 7 SkySats, and having the world's largest fleet of medium and high-res assets in both morning and afternoon crossing times enables a dataset never before provided in the commercial market at this scale.


Image credit: Orbital ATK

Furthermore, the launch of these 6 SkySats will double the sub-1 meter imaging capacity of our current SkySat fleet, providing a deeper understanding about our changing planet. With this expanded capability, decision makers will gain smarter, more timely insights to solve our world's toughest challenges.

Sending many thanks again to Orbital-ATK, SkySat Manufacturer SSL, L3, ECAPS, Tyvak, and the 30th Space Wing for helping make this launch possible!

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https://www.sslmda.com/html/pressreleases/2017-11-01-Initial-signals-received-from-six-small-satellites-built-by-SSL-for-Planet.php

Initial Signals Received Fr om Six Small Satellites Built by SSL for Planet

Palo Alto, CA – November 1, 2017 – SSL, a business unit of Maxar Technologies (formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.) (NYSE: MAXR; TSX: MAXR) announced today that six satellites it built for Planet's SkySat Earth observation constellation launched yesterday and made initial contact with ground stations according to plan. The satellites were launched aboard a Minotaur-C rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, and will begin sending their first images early next week.

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"SSL takes an innovative approach to small satellite manufacturing, and leverages its agile commercial production capabilities to serve both communications and Earth observation markets," said Dario Zamarian, group president of SSL. "It has been a pleasure for SSL to work with the Planet team, and to help support its growing capabilities. Congratulations to all who made the launch a success."

Called SkySat 8 through 13, the six satellites, which double Planet's high resolution imaging and change detection capabilities, provide information that can simplify and speed critical decision-making processes for its customers. The SkySat constellation now includes ten satellites built at the SSL smallsat manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, Calif., wh ere eight additional SkySats remain in production.

 "We were pleased to inherit a strong and reliable engineering and manufacturing partner when we acquired the SkySat business," said Chester Gilmore, vice president of manufacturing at Planet.  "Working together, SSL has helped us to expand our fleet, increasing our ability to provide timely insights from any location in the world."

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Broadcast of Orbital ATK's Minotaur C Launch of Planet Satellites

Orbital ATK

Опубликовано: 1 нояб. 2017 г.

Orbital ATK successfully launched its Minotaur C rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on October 31 at 2:37 p.m. PDT. The space launch vehicle deployed six SkySat and four Dove spacecraft, which will capture medium and high resolution multispectral imagery of Earth at unprecedented scale and frequency for the commercial market.

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http://spaceflight101.com/minotaur-c-skysat/minotaur-c-launches-ten-satellites-for-planet/

Minotaur-C Rocket Launches Ten Commercial Earth Observation Satellites
November 1, 2017

An all-solid-fueled rocket with familiar feel but new name lifted off fr om California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday to carry a group of ten Earth-observation satellites into orbit for San Francisco-based operator Planet. The Minotaur-C rocket blasted off from the seldom-used Space Launch Complex 576E at 21:37 UTC and was in action for twenty minutes to dispense six SkySat satellites and four Dove CubeSats into a Sun Synchronous Orbit.

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Photo: Orbital ATK

Although Minotaur experienced a series of unexpected signal drop-outs during its initial climb and the vehicle went out of tracking station range before deploying the satellites, launch success could be confirmed after all ten satellites checked in with ground stations after their first lap around the planet.

Classed as a new rocket by launch services provider Orbital ATK, the Minotaur-C – to a very large degree – is a re-branded Taurus flying under a new name after its record was tarnished by a pair of high-profile failures in 2009 and 2011. However, the transition from Taurus to Minotaur-C also included some changes on the hardware side, most notably a switch from heritage avionics to Orbital's common MACH avionics package designed as a flexible solution for all of the company's launch vehicles.

Taurus debuted in 1994 and successfully flew its first five missions before being hit by failure in 2001 when a thrust vector control drive shaft seized and caused a temporary loss of control, preventing the rocket from reaching a stable orbit. The vehicle then flew successfully with Taiwan's FormoSat-2 Earth Observation Satellite in 2004 before suffering two major blows on NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory and Glory launches which suffered near-identical failures at payload fairing separation.


Photo: Orbital ATK

The payload fairing is designed to protect the spacecraft as the rocket sits in the elements when waiting for launch and during atmospheric flight wh ere aerodynamic forces could damage the satellites. Typically, rockets separate their fairings once out of the dense atmosphere to shed dead weight that is no-longer needed as aerodynamic forces are negligible when reaching 100 Kilometers in altitude. In both cases, OCO and Glory, Taurus failed to separate the payload fairing and, as a result of the extra mass being carried along, could not achieve orbit.

After the OCO failure, NASA and Orbital Sciences (now Orbital ATK) conducted an inquiry into possible causes and came up with a list of probable root causes and corrective measures, implemented over a two-year Return to Flight campaign. However, as it turned out after Glory's not-so-glorious launch, the wrong problems on the 63-inch fairing were fixed.

An Orbital-led investigation zeroed-in on a frangible joint procured by the fairing contractor from a sub-contractor. In recent years, news emerged that the subcontractor in question allegedly falsified testing results to indicate their component had passed aerospace qualification tests.


Photo: Orbital ATK

The two consecutive failures on high-profile launches left the Taurus name with a black mark and Orbital ATK subsequently sought to distance itself from the Taurus brand name. The Taurus II rocket was re-named Antares in 2011 in an effort to distinguish the separate launch vehicle program from Taurus since it shares no significant commonality with the troubled vehicle. The Taurus name was silently retired around 2014 in favor of the Minotaur-C designation.

Minotaur-C stands 32 meters tall and weighs in at 77 metric tons, essentially representing a wingless Pegasus rocket with an additional boost stage. This is reflected in the numbering of the vehicle's stages with the Castor 120 boost stage serving as 'Stage 0' while the Pegasus stages – two Orion 50 and one Orion 38 motor – retain their designations as Stage 1, 2 and 3.

Minotaur-C can lift up to 1,458 Kilograms into a Low Earth Orbit and is available in multiple configurations with varying fairing size and stretched Orion stages for added performance; also, an option exists to replace the Stage 0 motor with a government-provided missile stage to reduce launch cost for Air Force-operated missions.

>> Minotaur-C Launch Vehicle Overview


SkySat Satellite during Processing – Photo: SSL/MDA

Tuesday's mission delivered a total of ten satellites into orbit, six SkySat high-resolution Earth observation satellites and four Dove CubeSats that are joining Planet's fleet of medium-resolution satellites capable of imaging the entire Earth at least once per day.

The SkySat constellation was originally designed by start-up company SkyBox imaging that formed in 2009 and successfully launched a pair of prototype satellites built in-house in 2013 and 2014 atop Dnepr and Soyuz rockets. In 2014, SkyBox was acquired by Google and later re-named Terra Bella, overseeing the first operational SkySat launches in 2016 when SkySat-3 lifted off on an Indian PSLV rocket and Skysats-4, 5, 6 and 7 were orbited by Europe's Vega rocket in September.

The operational SkySats are built by Space Systems Loral in California using an improved version of the original prototype designs. Each satellite is 60 by 60 by 95 centimeters in size and weighs 120 Kilograms, hosting a Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain telescope with a 3.6-meter focal length coupled with a CMOS detector array capable of collecting panchromatic imagery at a resolution of 0.9 meters and multi-band color images at two-meter resolution as well as 30 frame-per-second video at 1.1-meter resolution.

The operational SkySat spacecraft host a High-Performance Green Propulsion (HPGP) system for orbit control, allowing them to be maintained in an optimized constellation for the best possible coverage. A total of 19 operational satellites have been ordered from SS/L to establish a constellation with high-revisit rates for high-resolution imagery and video of ground targets.

>> SkySat Overview


Two Doves float free after deployment from the Space Station – Photo: NASA

Terra Bella was acquired by Planet Labs in February 2017 for an undisclosed sum, placing under one roof a capability of imaging the entire globe every day and collecting high-resolution imagery of targets of interest.

Riding shotgun on the inaugural Minotaur-C mission were four Flock-3m CubeSats to join Planet's large CubeSat constellation in various Low Earth Orbits, covering different planes and inclinations. Deployed via Tyvak RailPODs, the four satellites bring the total number of Doves launched into orbit to 275 and expand Planet's constellation with an afternoon segment in Sun Synchronous Orbit, allowing areas of interest to be imaged twice per day in medium- and high-resolution and also enable activities that happen at different times in the day to be captured.

The Dove satellites employ the 3U CubeSat form factor (10 x 10 x 34 cm) and weigh no more than five Kilograms, hosting a miniaturized telescope assembly with a 9-centimeter aperture. Since the first Doves launched in 2013, the company made a number of upgrades to the small spacecraft including the addition of new imaging bands in the visible and infrared range and improvements to the operational lifetime of the satellites. Depending on their orbital altitude, the Doves capture imagery with a resolution of up to three meters.

>> Flock-3m Satellites


Photo: Orbital ATK

Gearing up for what was hoped to be the first Taurus family success since 2004, Minotaur-C entered countdown operations in the morning hours, local time at SLC-576E – a former Atlas missile silo that had been vacant since the 1960s until the first Taurus launch in '94. A clean countdown and pristine weather forecast set the stage for an on-time liftoff on Tuesday, accomplished by firing up the Castor 120 Stage 0 at the opportune time for a Sun Synchronous Injection.

Catapulting the vehicle off its pedestal, Castor 120 delivered an average thrust of 172 metric-ton-force, departing California in a hurry and entering a pre-programmed pitch maneuver within seconds of lifting off to get aligned with a departure path due south. Nine meters in length and 2.34 meters in diameter, the Castor 120 burned 49 metric tons of solid propellant in one minute and 23 seconds, lifting Minotaur to an altitude of 49 Kilometers and accelerating it to 1.82 Kilometers per second.

Separation of the spent boost stage coincided with the ignition of Stage 1, an Orion 50S XLT which represents a wingless version of the Pegasus first stage with added provisions for thrust vector control. 9.93 meters in length and 1.28 meters in diameter, the stage was tasked with accelerating the vehicle to 4.27 Kilometers per second and increasing its altitude to 145 Kilometers at burnout, in the process consuming some 15 metric tons of packed propellants.


Photo: Planet


Payload Fairing Separation – Image: Orbital ATK Webcast

While Stage 1 was in operation, the mission experienced one of multiple extended telemetry drop outs, not unheard of for all-solid rockets departing Vandenberg due to the geometry of the ground tracking stations, the rocket and the electrically charged exhaust cloud. Range tracking assets continued following the vehicle's ascent path, confirming Minotaur continued on a nominal trajectory despite the signal outage.

Telemetry briefly returned to confirm that Stage 2 had fired up as planned two minutes and 52 seconds into the flight and the payload fairing successfully separated six seconds into the burn, a milestone pointed out repeatedly on the launch broadcast as trouble had struck earlier missions at this particular moment in flight. Stage 2 of the Minotaur-C is an Orion 50XLT that is largely identical to the Pegasus vehicle, standing 3.07 meters tall and burning 3,900 Kilograms of propellants over the course of 75 seconds.

>> Launch Profile


Image: Orbital ATK

The second stage burned out after boosting the vehicle's speed to 6.7 Kilometers per second, marking the start of a passive flight phase of four minutes to allow the stack to climb to the apogee of the sub-orbital path so that the Orion 38 stage could accomplish a circular orbit injection. Ignition of the Orion 38 occurred eight minutes and 55.6 seconds into the flight on a burn of 67 seconds to accelerate the stack to an orbital injection speed of 7.61 Kilometers per second, aiming for a 500-Kilometer Sun Synchronous Orbit.

Subsequent mission events including third stage burnout and satellite separation occurred out of ground station coverage with release of the first four SkySats planned at twenty-second intervals starting thirteen minutes and 22 seconds into the flight prior to a re-orientation and the separation of the upper bulkhead at T+15:22 to reveal the remaining two SkySats and CubeSat deployers. The SkySats were to depart at T+16:43 and T+17:03 followed by two CubeSat deployment events involving two satellites each at T+18:13 and T+19:44.



The success of Tuesday's mission was confirmed after all six SkySats and the four Doves checked in with ground stations when completing their first orbit around Earth. According to Tweets by Planet Labs, all satellites appeared healthy and going through their initial automated commissioning steps.

For Orbital ATK's Minotaur-C, the future is rather uncertain with no launches currently on the books. However, Orbital continues to show the vehicle as available for commercial and government customers.

Orbital ATK's next orbital mission is right around the corner as the company's Antares rocket targets a November 11 liftoff from Wallops Island in Virginia with the eighth regular Cygnus cargo resupply craft headed to the Space Station. A planned launch of NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer atop a Pegasus rocket in December is likely to slip several weeks.

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 5 ч назад

Official photos from yesterday's #MinotaurC launch! See more in our Flickr album http://bit.ly/2lEXy6f  Cred: @OrbitalATK /Bill Hartenstein

Спойлер

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http://bit.ly/2lEXy6f --> https://www.flickr.com/photos/orbital-atk/sets/72157686853635272

Minotaur C Planet Launch

Orbital ATK successfully launched its Minotaur C rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on October 31 at 2:37 p.m. PDT. The space launch vehicle deployed six SkySat and four Dove spacecraft, which will capture medium and high resolution multispectral imagery of Earth at unprecedented scale and frequency for the commercial market. Photo credits: Orbital ATK/ William Hartenstein

13 photos


By: Orbital ATK

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НОРАД идентифицировал все SkySat'ы запуска. Flock'и пока TBA
 

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/11/05/photos-minotaur-c-rocket-lifts-off-from-californias-central-coast/

Photos: Minotaur-C rocket lifts off from California's Central Coast
November 5, 2017 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK's Minotaur-C rocket delivered 10 satellites to orbit Oct. 31 after liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, marking the solid-fueled rocket's return to flight — with a new name and upgrades — after a six-year hiatus.

Спойлер

The four-stage rocket lifted off at 2:37 p.m. PDT (5:37 p.m. EDT: 2137 GMT) on Oct. 31 from pad 576E at Vandenberg, a military facility on the Pacific coast northwest of Los Angeles.
It carried 10 small commercial Earth-imaging satellites for Planet, a company based in San Francisco that now operates some 200 spacecraft in orbit.

Read our full story for details on the mission.


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News


Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Ian Dudley


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Orbital ATK


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Orbital ATK

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