Watch the Launch

Additional Media

NROL-129

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Government/Top Secret

Low Earth Orbit Launch Area 0 B Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA Probability: 95%

Classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

Minotaur IV

Family:
Configuration:

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.

Specifications
  • Stages
    4
  • Length
    23.9 m
  • Diameter
    2.35 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    86.0 T
  • Thrust
    2200.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Minotaur IV
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
    Peacekeeper SLV
  • Full Name
    Minotaur IV
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
    1735.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Orbital ATK

Orbital ATK

(OA)

President: David W. Thompson Founded: 2015 Successes: 6 Failures: 0 Pending: 0

Agency Type:

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

Related News

Spaceflight Now

Photos: Minotaur rocket vaults into orbit from Virginia

Spaceflight Now

Minotaur rocket successfully deploys four NRO satellites in orbit

Spaceflight Now

Minotaur rocket ready to launch four payloads for U.S. spy satellite agency

NASA Spaceflight

Northrop Grumman successfully launches NROL-129 from MARS

Spaceflight Now

Photos: Minotaur 4 rocket ready for launch from Virginia

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Launch Area 0 B


Ariane 64
Success
1 day, 19 hours ago
Amazon Leo (LE-03)
Ariane Launch Area 4 - Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, thi…


Falcon 9
Success
2 days ago
BlueBird Block 2 #3-5
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…


Kuaizhou 11
Success
2 days, 3 hours ago
CentiSpace-1 Group 05
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Note: Unofficial reports indicate there may be 1 or more additional satellites that failed to separate from the upper stage, however this is not offi…


Long March 12
Success
2 days, 4 hours ago
SatNet LEO Group 22
Commercial LC-2 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Long March 3B/E
Success
2 days, 21 hours ago
Shijian 31
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Classified experimental Chinese satellite of unknown purposes (officially described for "spatial environment detection" purposes).


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 16 hours ago
Starlink Group 17-54
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Kinetica 1
Success
4 days, 3 hours ago
8 x Jilin-1
Launch Area 130 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

8 Earth observation satellites for the Jilin-1 commercial Earth observation satellites constellation: * High Resolution-04D 01-02 * High Resoluti…


Falcon 9
Success
6 days, 18 hours ago
Starlink Group 10-54
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


H3-30
Success
1 week ago
H3-30 Test Flight
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

Test flight of the H3-30 variant of the H3 launch vehicle with 3 LE-9 engines in the first stage and no SRBs. The flight will carry a dummy main payl…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 17-44
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.