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Air Force

DARPA, SOCOM Providing Secondary Payloads For Air Force ORS-5 Satellite Launch

By Marc Selinger

Thursday, August 24th, 2017

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DARPA, SOCOM Providing Secondary Payloads For Air Force ORS-5 Satellite Launch

Orbital ATK's Minotaur IV launch vehicle. Photo: Air Force.

The Orbital ATK [OA] Minotaur IV rocket that will launch the Air Force Operationally Responsive Space 5 (ORS-5) space-tracking satellite is also carrying two secondary payloads from Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and one from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), government and industry officials said Aug. 24.The Minotaur, whose lower stages use three motors from decommissioned Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles, will release the secondary payloads after burning the first of two Orion 38 upper-stage motors, said Phil Joyce, vice…

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