SPARKY: You Want Rockets With Your SF Babes?

Research Rocket Lights Up Sky

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — A rocket carrying a military research satellite blasted off Thursday evening, dazzling spectators from California to Arizona with a rainbow of colors as it streaked across the sky at dusk.

The Minotaur rocket carrying a DARPA payload launched into orbit at 7:24 p.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base, said Maj. Todd Fleming.

DARPA is the research and development arm of the Pentagon. The 920-pound "Streak" payload will stay in orbit for a year, gathering information about the Earth's environment in low orbit. The mission's cost is classified.

The payload was so named because of the streaking movement it makes across the sky.

After blastoff, the rocket — made from decommissioned first and second stages of a Minuteman 2 missile — headed over the Pacific.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Ken Baker, who was driving along Pacific Coast Highway from El Segundo to Manhattan Beach when he saw the rocket.

"It almost looked like a laser, it was so bright," he said.

People throughout Central and Southern California and parts of Arizona also reported seeing the launch, with some voicing concerns that it might have been an explosion or terrorist attack.

Minotaur Launch of STP-R1

A Minotaur launched the STP-R1 STP-R1 experimental satellite into space for the Air Force Research Laboratory. Payload is DARPA's Streak technology demonstration satellite. Launch occurred at dusk and caused an impressive display visible as far away as Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico.
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Minotaur

For the U.S. Air Force's Orbital/Suborbital Program (OSP) we have developed the low-cost, four-stage Space Launch Vehicle (SLV) Minotaur rocket using a combination of U.S. government-supplied Minuteman II motors and proven Orbital space launch technologies.

The Minuteman rocket motors serve as the vehicle's first and second stages, efficiently reusing motors that have been decommissioned as a result of arms reduction treaties. Minotaur's third and fourth stages, structures and payload fairing are common with our highly reliable Pegasus XL rocket. Its capabilities have been enhanced with the addition of improved avionics systems, including our Modular Avionics Control Hardware (MACH), which is used on many of our suborbital launch vehicles.

Minotaur made its inaugural flight in January 2000, successfully delivering a number of small military and university satellites into orbit and marking the first-ever use of residual U.S. Government Minuteman boosters in a space launch vehicle. Minotaur has since extended its 100% success record with successful launches of Mightysat in July 2000, and XSS-11 in April 2005, both technology demonstration satellites for the Air Force Research Laboratory.

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Minotaur • STP-R1
Launch window: 0224-0240 GMT (10:24-10:40 p.m. EDT on Sept. 22)
Launch site: SLC-8, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

What it looked like to me - as the exhaust was scattered by high winds ...

The Orbital/Suborbital Program Space Launch Vehicle, nicknamed Minotaur, will launch the STP-R1 experimental satellite into space for DARPA. The four-stage rocket used U.S. government-supplied Minuteman 2 motors and Pegasus rocket stages. Delayed from July. [Sept. 19]

Follow the countdown and launch of the Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket with the U.S. military's STP-R1 "Streak" technology demonstration satellite. Reload this page for the very latest on the mission. T+plus 16 minutes. No confirmation of spacecraft deployment from the rocket has been announced. We'll be awaiting additional information from launch officials to determine if Minotaur has successfully completed its mission this evening.