Orbital Minotaur I - Manual (Page 59)

Minotaur I User’s Guide Section 6.0 – Mission Integration
The Minotaur organization uses highly skilled personnel with extensive Minotaur experience. The
Minotaur program is led by a Program Director who reports directly to Orbital’s Launch Systems Group
General Manager and has full responsibility for mission success. This direct line to executive
management provides high visibility, ensuring access to critical organizational resources. Supporting the
Program Director is the Minotaur Chief Engineer, who provides technical direction and oversight to
maintain standard practices across Orbital’s family of Minotaur launch vehicles.
For new missions, a Program Management team is assigned. Leading this team is the Program Manager,
whose primary responsibilities include developing staff requirements, interpreting contract requirements
as well as managing schedules and budgets for the mission. A Program Engineering Manager (PEM) is
assigned to provide management and technical direction to all engineering department personnel
assigned to the mission. The PEM is the single focal point for all engineering activity, and functions as the
chief technical lead for the mission and technical advisor to the Program Manager. In addition, the PEM
serves as the single point of contact for the OSP-3 Government COR.
Orbital also assigns a Mission Manager that serves as the primary interface to the SD/SDL Mission
Manager and payload provider. This person has overall mission responsibility to ensure that payload
requirements are met and that the appropriate launch vehicle services are provided. They do so via
detailed mission planning, payload integration scheduling, systems engineering, mission-peculiar design
and analyses coordination, payload interface definition, and launch range coordination. The Orbital
Mission Manager will jointly chair Working Group meetings with the SD/SDL Mission Manager.
Engineering Leads and their supporting engineers conduct detailed mission design and analyses, perform
integration and test activities, and follow hardware to the field site to ensure continuity and maximum
experience with that mission’s hardware.
Launch Site Operations are carried out by the collective Minotaur team as detailed in Section 7.0. A
Launch Site Integration and Operations lead are typically assigned and on-site full-time to manage day-
to-day launch site activities.
6.2. Mission Planning and Development
Orbital will assist the customer with mission planning and development associated with Minotaur launch
vehicle systems. These services include interface design and configuration control, development of
integration processes, launch vehicle analyses and facilities planning. In addition, launch campaign
planning that includes range services, integrated schedules and special operations.
The procurement, analysis, integration and test activities required to place a customer’s payload into orbit
are typically conducted over a 26 month standard sequence of events called the Mission Cycle. This
cycle normally begins 24 months before launch, and extends to 8 weeks after launch.
The Mission Cycle is initiated upon receipt of the contract authority to proceed. The contract option
designates the payload, launch date, and basic mission parameters. In response, the Minotaur Program
Manager designates an Orbital Mission Manager who ensures that the launch service is supplied
efficiently, reliably, and on-schedule.
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