The TacSat-3 satellite was launched to orbit by a Minotaur I rocket, Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB] announced.
Liftoff was from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) launch facility at Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., a NASA spaceport.
The early evening launch was followed 12 minutes later by the Minotaur I deploying the TacSat-3 in its targeted orbit of approximately 285 miles (460 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface.
This was the 16th mission for the Minotaur program since its inception in 2000, all of them successful. It was the third Minotaur I launch from the MARS facility, following the TacSat-2 and NFIRE missions conducted from the Eastern Virginia launch site in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Including the TacSat-3 mission, which carried four other smaller payloads, Minotaur I rockets have put a total of 30 satellites into orbit.
Orbital will conduct the first two Minotaur IV flights later this year when it launches TacSat-4, the next in the Air Force’s series of smaller-sized tactical satellites, from Kodiak, Alaska, and the Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
The TacSat-3 spacecraft is designed to meet the growing need of U.S. forces for flexible, affordable and responsive satellite systems. The program is a joint effort of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate, Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s (SMC) Space Development and Test Wing, the Department of Defense ORS office, and the Office of Naval Research.
The overall launch service and management for the Minotaur I vehicle was provided by the Air Force SMC’s Space Development and Test Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.