Minotaur IV | NROL-174
Launch Successful
L - -- : -- : -- : --
Launch Window
April 16, 2025, 7 p.m. - April 16, 2025, 9:26 p.m.
April 16, 2025, 7 p.m. - April 16, 2025, 9:26 p.m.
Classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.
Launch success
Apparent liftoff
Tweaked T-0.
GO for launch.
NET April 16.
The Minotaur IV launch system is derived from the Peacekeeper ICBM. The first three stages are taken directly from decommissioned Peacekeeper missiles. A fourth stage, the Orion-38, is taken from the Pegasus family of air-launched rockets.
Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems. Orbital ATK was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018.
INFO WIKI
A Falcon 9 core has now launched as many times as there are Merlins on a Falcon Heavy.
Minotaur IV Rocket Launches Classified NROL-174 Payloads from Vandenberg in Return to California Skies
The last Minotaur 4 launch from Space Launch Complex 8 was on Aug. 11, 2011. It is returning to that pad nearly a decade and a half later, targeting a liftoff at 12:33 p.m. PDT (3:33 p.m. EDT, 1933 UTC).
The mission, designated NROL-174, lifted off at 3:33 p.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 8 (SLC-8) at Vandenberg. The post Minotaur IV rocket launches spy payloads for National Reconnaissance Office appeared first on SpaceNews.
This week will see the worldwide launch cadence slow, with only four launches scheduled. SpaceX’s… The post Launch Roundup: Alpha ready for launch, Falcon 9 to launch cargo to ISS appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.
Two technology demonstration satellites for satellite transmissions of signals for the VHF Data Exchange System (VDES), a successor to the current Au…
A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
First test launch of LandSpace’s ZQ-3 rocket, with a dummy payload. The rocket’s 1st stage will attempt to land on a landing pad about 300 km downran…
A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
KOMPSAT-7 is the follow-up model of KOMPSAT-3A whose mission is to provide high-resolution satellite images to satisfy South-Korea's governmental and…
A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Classified experimental Chinese satellite of unknown purposes.
Dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.
Soyuz MS-28 will carry three cosmonauts and one astronaut to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome…