Minotaur-C (Taurus) |150x150px The
Taurus launch vehicle, later renamed
Minotaur-C (for "Minotaur-Commercial"), was the first of the Minotaur family and the first ground-launched orbital booster developed by
Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC). It was derived by adding a solid booster stage to the air-launched
Pegasus rocket. The first flight, sponsored by
DARPA, occurred in 1994. Following a series of failures between 2001 and 2011, the vehicle was rebranded as Minotaur-C in 2014. Due to restrictions on the commercial use of government-furnished hardware, Minotaur-C is the only Minotaur vehicle available for commercial launches.
Minotaur I The original Minotaur launch vehicle consists of an M55A1 first stage, SR19 second stage, Orion 50XL third stage,
Orion 38 fourth stage, and an optional HAPS fifth stage for velocity trimming and multiple payload deployment. It can deliver to a orbit at 28.5° inclination from
Cape Canaveral, or to a
Sun-synchronous orbit from
Vandenberg.
Minotaur II The
Minotaur II is a suborbital target vehicle derived from the
Minuteman II missile, incorporating Orbital guidance and control systems. It consists of an M55A1 first stage, SR19 second stage, and M57 third stage, and can carry a payload of on a suborbital trajectory. The vehicle has also been used in support of the U.S. Air Force's Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) program.
Minotaur V The
Minotaur V is a five-stage variant based on the Minotaur IV+, incorporating an additional upper stage for missions to
geostationary transfer orbit, lunar trajectories, and interplanetary destinations.
NASA's
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) was launched on the first Minotaur V from the
Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 03:27 UTC on September 7, 2013. The vehicle placed LADEE into a highly elliptical orbit to enable phasing for lunar transfer.
Minotaur VI The
Minotaur VI is a proposed five-stage launch vehicle developed by Northrop Grumman that, as of 2025, has not flown. It is based on the Minotaur IV+, with the addition of a second SR-118 first stage to increase performance. An enhanced variant, Minotaur VI+, is also proposed for beyond low Earth orbit missions, incorporating an additional Star 37FM sixth stage. This configuration is projected to deliver up to to Mars. == Launch statistics ==