Minotaur I Launch Updates and Viewing Options

Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation

Live coverage available at: https://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tv-wallops

UPDATE 4:  Launch at 8:15 p.m. was nominal. The primary payload, a defense satellite, was deployed as planned.  The deployment of 28 Cubesats will take place out out of the range of ground tracking stations. We’re awaiting word on the success of those deployments.

UPDATE 3 at 7:30 p.m. EST: Count has resumed. New launch time is 8:15 p.m. EST.

UPDATE 2 at 7:11 p.m. EST:  Issue with tracking site identified. Will resume count at T-1 hour after tests completed.

UPDATE 1 at 6:48 p.m. EST:  T-1 hour and holding at 6:30 p.m. Continuing to work tracking site issue. Launch window runs until 9:15 p.m. EST

Via NASA — A United States Air Force Minotaur I rocket is scheduled to lift-off at 7:30 p.m. EST, Nov.19, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0B at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Minotaur will launch the Air Force’s Operationally Responsive Space Office’s ORS-3 mission, which features the deployment of 29 satellites in space.

The launch window is 7:30 to 9:15 p.m.  The backup launch days run through November 26.

The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge/Assateague Island National Seashore will be open for viewing the launch.  Visitors to Assateague need to be on the island by 6 p.m. before the entrance gate closes.

The night launch will be visible up and down the East Coast (see above map). Orbital Sciences Corporation has an additional map showing elevations as well as images with sample views from different locations along the East Coast here.

Live coverage of the launch is available via UStream beginning at 6:30 p.m. EST on launch day at: https://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tv-wallops.

Launch status can be followed on launch day on Twitter at: https://www.twitter.com/NASA_Wallops and Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/NASAWFF.

Launch status also is available on the Wallops launch status line at 757-824-2050.

For more information on the ORS-3 mission, visit: https://go.usa.gov/Wgbd.