NOTS 4

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Government/Top Secret

Low Earth Orbit Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake Air launch to Suborbital flight

The project pilot payloads were small cylindrical satellites. These missions intended to be the first to launch a satellite from an aircraft. They had only a single instrument, a very primitive infrared line scanning device to make IR images of the ground.

Project Pilot

Family:
Configuration:

The NOTS-EV-1 Pilot, also known as NOTSNIK was an expendable launch system and anti-satellite weapon developed by the United States Navy's United States Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS).

Specifications
  • Stages
    5
  • Length
    4.4 m
  • Diameter
    0.76 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    0.76 m
  • Launch Mass
  • Thrust
    125.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Project Pilot
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Project Pilot
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
    1.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

US Navy

US Navy

(USN)

Founded: 1963 Successes: 3 Failures: 15 Pending: 0

Agency Type:

The Navy was competed with the Army to put the first American satellite into orbit. Their first two Vanguard missions failed, with the second being a highly publicized failure, as it exploded on the launchpad. They went on to put 3 satellites into orbit but did not beat the Army to be the first. Their work in space continues today largely on military satellites.

INFO WIKI

Air launch to Suborbital flight

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake


Falcon 9
Success
1 day, 12 hours ago
NROL-69
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Classified payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office


Ceres-1
Success
4 days, 18 hours ago
Yunyao-1 43-48
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

6 weather satellites performing atmospheric measurements using GNSS Radio Occultation for a Tianjin based company. Constellation is planned to have a…


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 23 hours ago
NROL-57
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Eighth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office t…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 12-25
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Electron
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
High Five (Kinéis 21-25)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1A - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Last of five batches of five satellites for the French Kinéis IoT constellation designed to operate with 25 nanosatellites of 30 kg each.


Ceres-1
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
8 satellites
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Carried 8 satellites to 535 km high SSO: * Yunyao-1 #55-60 * AIRSAT-06 & 07


Angara 1.2
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
3 x Rodnik (Kosmos 2585, 2586, 2587)
35/1 - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identity and Cosmos series numbering not confirmed. The Strela (Russian: Стрела) are Soviet, then Russian, military space telecommun…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
Starlink Group 12-16
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
Transporter 13 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.


Long March 2D
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
SuperView Neo 3-02
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Commercial Earth observation satellite built by CAST for China Siwei Survey and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd, with 0.5 m resolution over 9 image wavele…