The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), U.S. Space Force’s (USSF) Space Launch Delta 30, and USSF Space Systems Command’s small launch and targets division launched defense and intelligence payloads aboard NROL-174 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., on Wednesday.
Carrying the payloads was a Northrop Grumman [NOC] Minotaur IV rocket in what NRO said was the first Minotaur launch for NRO from Vandenberg since 2011. A decommissioned Peacekeeper ICBM supplies Minotaur IV with solid rocket motors for its first three stages, and the rocket uses a commercial upper stage.
Previous Minotaur launches for the NRO include the NROL-111 and NROL-129 missions from Wallops Island, Va., in June 2021 and July 2020, respectively, and NROL-66 from Vandenberg in February 2011.
In addition to the NRO launches, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M. test flew a Minotaur carrying an unarmed Mk21A reentry vehicle by Lockheed Martin [LMT] for the Sentinel ICBM program last June 18 from Vandenberg.
NROL-174 is part of the NRO/SSC Rocket Systems Launch Program, which “focuses on the small launch market and primarily launches more risk-tolerant experimental, research and development, responsive space, and operational missions,” NRO said.
“NROL-174 is the third NRO mission launched from SSC RSLP’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contract,” the agency said.
NRO said it has launched more than 150 satellites over the past two years for the agency’s proliferated architecture–the latest being the NROL-192 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg on Apr. 12 (Defense Daily, Apr. 14).