Orbital Minotaur V - Manual

FACT SHEET
QUICK FACTS
System Features
• Near term cost effective support of
high energy trajectory missions
• Straight forward five stage evolution of
Minotaur IV SLV
• Extensive use of flight-proven
boosters, subsystems, and software
• Inertially-guided or spinning Stage 5
configuration options available
• Portable ground support systems
allow multiple spaceport launch
capability (California, Florida, Alaska,
Mid-Atlantic)
• Mission success ensured by mature
systems and processes including
Orbital’s rigorous mission assurance
program, full government insight, and
independent assessment
Overview
Minotaur V is a five stage
evolutionary version of the
Minotaur IV Space Launch
Vehicle (SLV) to provide a cost-
effective capability to launch
U.S. Government-sponsored
small spacecraft into high
energy trajectories, including
Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits
(GTO) as well as translunar and
beyond.
The Minotaur V concept
leverages Orbital’s flight proven
heritage of the Minotaur family
of launch vehicles to create
a low-risk, readily-developed
system.
The Minotaur V avionics,
structures, and fairing are
common with the Minotaur IV
SLV, with relatively minor
changes to create the five stage
configuration. Moreover, the
avionics and flight software
are highly common across all
Minotaur family vehicles.
The first three stages of the
Minotaur V are former
Peacekeeper solid rocket
motors with over 50 flights of
each stage. The fourth and fifth
stages are commercial STAR
™ motors. The stage four motor is a STAR ™ 48BV configuration. The
fifth stage can be either attitude controlled or spinning. For a spin-stabilized upper stage, a STAR ™
37FM is used while a STAR ™ 37FMV, with gimballed, flexseal nozzle, is used for 3-axis stabilized
control.
The Minotaur family of launch vehicles are provided via the Orbital/Suborbital Program (OSP)
managed by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), Space Development and
Test Directorate (SMC/SD) Launch Systems Division (SMC/SDL) located at Kirtland Air Force Base,
New Mexico.
Minotaur V is a low risk direct evolution of
Minotaur IV.
Minotaur V
High Energy Space Launch Vehicle
Minotaur V provides cost-effective support of small GEO and lunar missions.