[Launch Alert] Wednesday Vandenberg Launch

[Launch Alert]

                             LAUNCH ALERT
 				  
                              Brian Webb
                    Ventura County, California
                 launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
                       www.spacearchive.info
		       
                                  2011 August 8 (Monday) 19:13 PDT
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                   MINOTAUR IV LAUNCH SCHEDULED
                    Vandenberg AFB News Release
                           2011 August 8

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Team Vandenberg is scheduled to
launch a Minotaur IV from Space Launch Complex-8 here between 7 a.m.
and 1 p.m. Aug. 10.  

The rocket's payload is the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency's Hypersonic Test Vehicle-2.

The 30th Space Wing commander, Col. Richard Boltz, is the launch
decision authority.

The Minotaur IV is a four-stage solid rocket vehicle consisting of
three decommissioned Peacekeeper missile stages and a fourth,
commercially-built stage developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation. 

For more information on the HTV-2, please see http://go.usa.gov/KnE. 

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         AIR FORCE PREPARES TO LAUNCH DARPA HYPERSONIC VEHICLE
         U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Center News Release
                            2011 August 8

LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, El Segundo, Calif. - The second flight of
the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, developed by the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, is scheduled to launch Wednesday at 7 a.m.
PDT from Space Launch Complex 8 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.,
aboard a Minotaur IV Lite rocket.

The early morning launch is the second flight of HTV-2 in a test
series designed to validate technologies that will enable
high-performance, long-duration, and maneuverable hypersonic flight.  

Furthermore, the HTV-2 program serves as a demonstration of the
hypersonic technologies that are needed to achieve a prompt global
reach capability.

This will be the 4th launch of Orbital Sciences Corporation's
Minotaur IV rocket which uses decommissioned Peacekeeper
intercontinental ballistic missile motors. This is also the 9th launch
for the Minotaur program from Vandenberg AFB, Space Launch Complex 8.
DARPA selected the Minotaur IV launch vehicle highlighting the
responsive, reliable and cost-effective nature of the rocket. 

The Minotaur family of launch vehicles are provided via the
Orbital/Suborbital Program 2 and managed by the U.S. Air Force Space
Development and Test Directorate's Launch Systems Division located at
Kirtland AFB, NM.

"The first flight of HTV-2 allowed DARPA to greatly increase our
understanding of the hypersonic environments encountered by the
vehicle; the data collection was a resounding success. The entire team
is looking forward to yet another successful flight demonstration for
our DARPA partners," said Col. Kent Nickle, Chief of SMC/SD's Launch
Systems Division and HTV-2 Flight 2 Mission Director.

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