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.
The European Space Agency (ESA)'s LEO-PNT (Low Earth Orbit Positioning, Navigation and Timing) demonstrator mission will feature a 10-satellite const…
Chinese satellite reported to be for "space environment research" purposes. Actual usage not known.
A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Commercial Synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites built by CAST for China Siwei Survey and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd.
Note: Payload identities uncertain. Batch of 16 Rassvet-3 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Russian Byuro-1440 (Bureau 1440) conste…
Chinese commercial small satellites by Beijing-based company Future Navigation for providing GNSS augmentation signals services from LEO. They are pa…
A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.
A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.