Minotaur I

The Minotaur I was produced and developed by Orbital ATK, for the United States Air Force. The Minotaur I is another expandable launch vehicle that is used to launch smaller satellites into low earth orbit. The Minotaur I is able to launch from multifarious amounts of states. For example, the Minotaur I is able to launch from, Alaska, California, Florida, and the Mid-Atlantic. The rocket is able to carry a payload of 580 kilograms to low earth orbit. The Minotaur I has four stages. The first stage of the rocket consists of a minuteman II solid propellant (or M55A1), the second stage includes a Minuteman II SR19 motor and on the third and fourth stages they use a Orion 50XL and Orion 38. The rocket stands about 63 feet tall and has a diameter of 5 feet and 6 inches. The Minotaur I has a mass of roughly, 79,000 pounds or 36,000 kilograms. The Minotaur I has had 11 successful launches. The flight computer inside the rocket is 32-bit multiprocessor that communication with the rockets subsystems. The rocket has attitude control systems, telemetry subsystems, payload interface, and much more.