Minotaur I — mission imagery
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Success

COSMIC 1-6

Minotaur IOrbital Sciences CorporationSpace Launch Complex 8
Saturday, April 15, 2006 · 01:40 AM UTCAdd to Calendar

This mission is complete.

Vehicle

Minotaur I

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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...

Height23.9 m
LEO Payload1,735 kg
Launches72
Successes65

Provider

Orbital Sciences Corporation

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Provider details are not available yet.

Mission Brief

In early 2001, the National Space Program Office (NSPO) of Taiwan, Republic of China, selected Orbital for a $56 million contract for the ROCSAT-3/COSMIC (Republic of China Satellite / Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) program. ROCSAT was renamed FORMOSAT in December 2004. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC program is an international collaboration between Taiwan and the United States that will use a constellation of six remote sensing microsatellites to collect atmospheric data for weather prediction and for ionosphere, climate and gravity research. Data from the satellites will be made freely available to the international scientific community in near real-time.

PayloadCOSMIC 1-6
OrbitLow Earth Orbit
CustomerOrbital Sciences Corporation
Stages4
PadSpace Launch Complex 8, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Mission Timeline

14 / 14100%
Site lock

Launch Site

Space Launch Complex 8, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

LAUNCH SITE
34.576°N, 120.632°W

Schedule History

No delays or schedule changes recorded.