Minotaur (rocket family)

The Minotaur is a family of United States solid-fuel launch vehicles derived from retired Minuteman and Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Built by Northrop Grumman under the U.S. Space Force's Rocket Systems Launch Program, the vehicles are used for orbital and suborbital missions.

The Minotaur family consists of four primary variants: the Minotaur I, used for launching small satellites into low Earth orbit; the Minotaur II, used primarily as a suborbital target vehicle; the Minotaur IV, a small-lift orbital launch vehicle; and the Minotaur V and Minotaur VI, capable of higher-energy missions including geostationary transfer orbit and trans-lunar trajectories. Minotaur I and II are derived from the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM, while Minotaur IV, V, VI and the cancelled Minotaur III are based on the LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM.

Vehicles Minotaur-C (Taurus)

The Taurus launch vehicle, later renamedStephen Clark, "Taurus rocket on the market with new name, upgrades", Spaceflight Now, February 24, 2014 Minotaur-C (for "Minotaur-Commercial"), was the first of the Minotaur family and the first ground-launched orbital booster developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC). It was derived by adding a solid booster stage to the air-launched Pegasus rocket.

The first flight, sponsored by DARPA, occurred in 1994. Following a series of failures between 2001 and 2011, the vehicle was rebranded as Minotaur-C in 2014. Due to restrictions on the commercial use of government-furnished hardware, Minotaur-C is the only Minotaur vehicle available for commercial launches.

Minotaur I

The original Minotaur launch vehicle consists of an M55A1 first stage, SR19 second stage, Orion 50XL third stage, Orion 38 fourth stage, and an optional HAPS fifth stage for velocity trimming and multiple payload deployment. It can deliver to a orbit at 28.5° inclination from Cape Canaveral, or to a Sun-synchronous orbit from Vandenberg.

Minotaur II

The Minotaur II is a suborbital target vehicle derived from the Minuteman II missile, incorporating Orbital guidance and control systems. It consists of an M55A1 first stage, SR19 second stage, and M57 third stage, and can carry a payload of on a suborbital trajectory.

Minotaur III

The Minotaur III was a proposed suborbital target vehicle consisting of an SR118 first stage, SR119 second stage, SR120 third stage, and Super HAPS fourth stage. It was designed to carry on a suborbital trajectory. Development was cancelled and the vehicle was never flown.

Minotaur IV

The Minotaur IV combines decommissioned Peacekeeper solid rocket motors with technologies from other Orbital-built launch vehicles, including Minotaur I, Pegasus, and Taurus. It consists of an SR118 first stage, SR119 second stage, SR120 third stage, and Orion 38 fourth stage. It can deliver to a orbit at 28.5° inclination from Cape Canaveral.

The first launch occurred on April 22, 2010, from Vandenberg in California. The vehicle has also been used in support of the U.S. Air Force's Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) program.

Minotaur V

The Minotaur V is a five-stage variant based on the Minotaur IV+, incorporating an additional upper stage for missions to geostationary transfer orbit, lunar trajectories, and interplanetary destinations.

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) was launched on the first Minotaur V from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 03:27 UTC on September 7, 2013. The vehicle placed LADEE into a highly elliptical orbit to enable phasing for lunar transfer.

Minotaur VI

The Minotaur VI is a proposed five-stage launch vehicle developed by Northrop Grumman that, as of 2025, has not flown. It is based on the Minotaur IV+, with the addition of a second SR-118 first stage to increase performance. An enhanced variant, Minotaur VI+, is also proposed for beyond low Earth orbit missions, incorporating an additional Star 37FM sixth stage. This configuration is projected to deliver up to to Mars.

Launch statistics Rocket configurations

Launch sites

Launch outcomes

Launch history 1994 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launchoutcome1 March 13, 199422:32 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E STEP Mission 0 and DARPASAT USAF/DARPA 1998 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome2 February 10, 199813:20 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E GFO and Orbcomm (satellites 11,12) 3 October 3, 199810:04 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E Space Technology Experiment (STEX) NRO 1999 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome4 December 21, 199907:13 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E KOMPSAT and ACRIMSAT 2000 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome5 January 27, 200003:03:06 Minotaur I Vandenberg, SLC-8 JAWSat (P98-1) (FalconSat1 / ASUSat1 / OCSE / OPAL) LEO 6 March 12, 200009:29 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) 7 May 28, 200020:00 Minotaur II Vandenberg, LF-06 OSP-TLV Missile Defense Technology Demonstrator Suborbital 8 July 19, 200020:09:00 Minotaur I Vandenberg, SLC-8 MightySat II.1 (Sindri, P99-1) / MEMS 2A / MEMS 2B LEO 2001 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome9 September 21, 200118:49 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E Orbview-4/QuikTOMS 10 December 4, 200104:59 Minotaur II Vandenberg, LF-06 TLV-1 IFT-7 GMDS target mission Suborbital 2002 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome11 March 16, 200202:11 Minotaur II Vandenberg, LF-06 TLV-2 IFT-8 GMDS target mission Suborbital 12 October 15, 200202:01 Minotaur II Vandenberg, LF-06 TLV-3 GMDS target mission Suborbital 13 December 11, 200208:26 Minotaur II Vandenberg, LF-06 TLV-4 GMDS target mission Suborbital 2004 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome14 May 20, 200417:47 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E ROCSAT-2 2005 Flight No. Date / time (UTC) Rocket, Configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome15 April 11, 200513:35:00 Minotaur I Vandenberg, SLC-8 XSS-11 LEO 16 September 22, 200519:24:00 Minotaur I Vandenberg, SLC-8 Streak (STP-R1) LEO 2006 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome17 April 15, 200601:40:00 Minotaur I Vandenberg, SLC-8 COSMIC (FORMOSAT-3) LEO 18 December 16, 200612:00 Minotaur I MARS, LP-0B TacSat-2 / GeneSat-1 LEO 2007 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome19 March 21, 200704:27 Minotaur II Vandenberg, LF-06 TLV-5 FTX-02 SBR target mission Suborbital 20 April 24, 200706:48 Minotaur I MARS, LP-0B NFIRE LEO 21 August 23, 200708:30 Minotaur II+ Vandenberg, LF-06 TLV-7 Mission 2a sensor target for NFIRE satellite Suborbital 2008 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome22 September 24, 200806:57 Minotaur II+ Vandenberg, LF-06 TLV-8 Mission 2b sensor target for NFIRE satellite Suborbital 2009 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome23 February 24, 200909:55 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E Orbiting Carbon Observatory 24 May 19, 200923:55 Minotaur I MARS, LP-0B TacSat-3 / PharmaSat / AeroCube 3 / HawkSat I / CP6 LEO 2010 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome25 April 22, 201023:00 Minotaur IV Lite Vandenberg, SLC-8 HTV-2a hypersonic research spacecraft Suborbital 26 September 26, 201004:41 Minotaur IV Vandenberg, SLC-8 SBSS SSO 27 November 20, 201001:25 Minotaur IV HAPS Kodiak Island, LP-1 STP-S26 (FASTRAC-A / FASTRAC-B / FalconSat-5 / FASTSAT / O/OREOS / RAX) LEO 2011 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome28 February 6, 201112:26 Minotaur I Vandenberg, SLC-8 NROL-66 LEO 29 March 4, 201110:09 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E Glory, KySat-1, Hermes, and Explorer-1 [PRIME] 30 June 30, 201103:09 Minotaur I MARS, LP-0B ORS-1 LEO 31 August 11, 201114:45 Minotaur IV Lite Vandenberg, SLC-8 Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2b) Suborbital 32 September 27, 201115:49 Minotaur IV+ Kodiak Island, LP-1 TacSat-4 MEO 2013 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome33 September 7, 201303:27 Minotaur V MARS, LP-0B LADEE HEO 34 November 20, 201301:15 Minotaur I MARS, LP-0B ORS-3 (STPSat-3 along with 28 additional cubesats) LEO 2017 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome35 August 26, 201706:04 Minotaur IV Cape Canaveral, SLC-46 ORS-5 LEO 36 October 31, 201721:37 Minotaur-C Vandenberg, SLC-576E SkySat × 6, Flock-3m × 4 2020 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome37 July 15, 202013:46 Minotaur IV MARS, LP-0B NROL-129 (USA 305 to USA 308) LEO NRO 2021 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome38 June 15, 202113:35 Minotaur I MARS, LP-0B NROL-111 (USA 316 to USA 318) LEO NRO 2022 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome39 July 7, 202206:01 Minotaur II+ Vandenberg, TP-01 Mk21A reentry vehicle Suborbital AFNWC 2024 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome40 June 18, 202407:01 Minotaur I Vandenberg, TP-01 Mk21A reentry vehicle Suborbital AFNWC 2025 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome41 16 April 2025 19:33 Minotaur IV Vandenberg, SLC-8 NROL-174 LEO NRO 2026 Flight No. Date and time (UTC) Rocket configuration Launch site Payload Orbit Customer Launch outcome42 7 April 2026, 11:33 Minotaur IV Vandenberg, SLC-8 STPSat-7 LEO United States Space Force

Planned launches Date/Time (UTC)VariantLaunch sitePayloadTrajectoryRemarksNET 2026Minotaur IVVandenberg, SLC8EWS-OD 1LEOUSSF-261S-A missionTBDMinotaur IV LiteVandenberg, SLC8Conventional Strike Missile (CSM)SuborbitalTBDMinotaur IV?LEOORS missionTBDMinotaur IV?LEOORS mission

See also

Dnepr, a converted Soviet ICBM often used for commercial satellite launches Modified Minotaur IV (Ascent Abort-2), Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2), was a suborbital flight to test the Launch Abort System (LAS) of NASA's Orion spacecraft. The suborbital flight used a modified Minotaur IV, launched July 2, 2019, at 11:00 UTC from CCAFS SLC-46. The suborbital flight was a success.

References

External links Minotaur I Rocket page Minotaur IV Rocket page

Encyclopedia Astronautix Entry for Minotaur