Demonstrates And Validates Launch And Range Improvements From The Facility

A Minotaur I rocket carrying the DOD's Operationally Responsive Space-3 mission successfully launched at 2015 EST, Nov. 19, from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0B at Wallops Island, VA.

The ORS-3 Mission, also known as an enabler mission, will demonstrate and validate launch and range improvements for NASA and the military. These include automated trajectory targeting, range-safety planning and flight termination systems. The launch also will be part of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) certification process for the Minotaur rocket. The FAA has licensing authority over American commercial rockets.

The Minotaur's primary payload is the Space Test Program Satellite-3 (STPSat-3), an Air Force technology-demonstration mission. Thirteen small cubesats aboard are being provided through NASA's Cubesat Launch Initiative. Among the cubesats is NASA's Small Satellite Program PhoneSat 2 second generation smartphone mission. Also included is the first cubesat built by high school students.

Nine university teams and one high school team were able to watch the nanosatellites, or cubesats, that they designed and built launch into space. More than 300 students took part in this fourth installment of NASA’s cubesat Launch Initiative and its Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) Missions, which enables students, teachers and faculty to obtain hands-on flight hardware development experience. This launch marks the first time NASA has boosted a cubesat developed by students not yet in college – high school students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology of Alexandria, VA, into orbit.

The next Wallops launch is an Antares rocket with a Cygnus cargo spacecraft targeted for Dec. 15-21, 2013.

(Minotaur rocket launch pictured in NASA file photo)

FMI: www.nasa.gov