spacetoday.net: Minotaur launches TacSat-3

Posted: Wed, May 20, 2009, 6:53 AM ET (1053 GMT)
Minotaur 1 launch of TacSat-3 (OSC)

A Minotaur rocket successfully launched an experimental military satellite and small NASA spacecraft Tuesday evening. The Orbital Sciences Corporation Minotaur 1 lifted off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia at 7:55 pm EDT (2355 GMT) Tuesday, placing into orbit the TacSat-3 and PharmaSat satellites. The primary payload on the Minotaur is TacSat-3, a 400-kilogram satellite designed to test responsive space technologies, including a hyperspectral imager. Flying as a secondary payload is PharmaSat, a 5-kilogram satellite built by NASA's Ames Research Center to study the growth of yeast cells in space and the effectiveness of antifungal drugs. The launch had been scheduled for earlier this month but was postponed several times by poor weather and technical glitches.