Pad-launched launch vehicle using Pegasus upper stages and Castor-120 first stage. First launch used slightly larger Peacekeeper ICBM first stage instead of Castor-120. Under a 2002 contract from Boeing, Orbital developed a three-stage version of Taurus to serve as the interceptor boost vehicles for the US government's missile intercept system. The firm portion of the company's contract, awarded in early 2002, was valued at $450 million and extended through 2007.
The Taurus rocket offered an affordable, reliable means of launching small satellites into low-Earth orbit. Developed under the sponsorship of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Taurus was designed for easy transportability and rapid set-up and launch and was a ground-based variant of Orbital's air-launched Pegasus rocket. The four-stage, inertially guided, all solid propellant vehicle could deploy a 1,350-kilogram satellite into low-Earth orbit. Two fairing sizes offered flexibility in designing a particular mission. The addition of a structural adapter allowed launch of multiple payloads.
The Taurus incorporated a simplified integration and test capability that included horizontal integration of the rocket's upper stages and offline encapsulation of the payload within the fairing. The upper stages and the encapsulated cargo were delivered to the launch site, where they were mated. The whole assembly was then stacked on the first stage using a mobile crane.
The Taurus launch system included a complete set of ground support equipment to ensure the ability to operate from austere sites. Taurus was approved for launch from the US Government's Western range at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Cape Canaveral Air Station (CCAS) in Florida, Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in Virginia, and Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska.
Four stage version consisting of 1 x TU-904 + 1 x Orion 50 + 1 x Orion 50 + 1 x Orion 38
Version: Taurus 3210. Status: Active.
Launches: 1. First Launch Date: 2004-05-20. Last Launch Date: 2004-05-20. Liftoff Thrust: 1,380.000 kN (310,230 lbf). Total Mass: 73,000 kg (160,000 lb). Core Diameter: 2.35 m (7.70 ft). Total Length: 31.60 m (103.60 ft).
- Stage1: 1 x SR118. Gross Mass: 53,020 kg (116,880 lb). Empty Mass: 4,211 kg (9,283 lb). Motor: 1 x Castor 120. Thrust (vac): 1,606.594 kN (361,177 lbf). Isp: 286 sec. Burn time: 83 sec. Length: 10.70 m (35.10 ft). Diameter: 2.36 m (7.74 ft). Propellants: Solid.
- Stage2: 1 x Taurus-1. Gross Mass: 13,242 kg (29,193 lb). Empty Mass: 1,088 kg (2,398 lb). Motor: 1 x Pegasus-1. Thrust (vac): 484.909 kN (109,012 lbf). Isp: 285 sec. Burn time: 73 sec. Length: 7.60 m (24.90 ft). Diameter: 1.27 m (4.16 ft). Propellants: Solid.
- Stage3: 1 x Orion 50. Gross Mass: 3,370 kg (7,420 lb). Empty Mass: 345 kg (760 lb). Motor: 1 x Pegasus-2. Thrust (vac): 118.199 kN (26,572 lbf). Isp: 292 sec. Burn time: 73 sec. Length: 2.65 m (8.69 ft). Diameter: 1.27 m (4.16 ft). Propellants: Solid.
- Stage4: 1 x Pegasus-3. Gross Mass: 985 kg (2,171 lb). Empty Mass: 203 kg (447 lb). Motor: 1 x Pegasus-3. Thrust (vac): 34.568 kN (7,771 lbf). Isp: 293 sec. Burn time: 65 sec. Length: 2.08 m (6.82 ft). Diameter: 0.97 m (3.18 ft). Propellants: Solid.
Taurus Chronology
1994 March 13 - 22:32 GMT - Vandenberg 576E. ARPA Taurus T1 1110 USA 101 Mass: 502 kg (1,106 lb). Spacecraft: TAOS. Agency: USAF. Perigee: 555 km (344 mi). Apogee: 561 km (348 mi). Inclination: 105.00 deg. Period: 95.80 min. Space Test Experiment Program; 10 satellite subsystem experiments. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).
1998 February 10 - 13:20 GMT - Vandenberg 576E. Taurus 2210 T2 GFO Spacecraft: GFO. Agency: USN. Perigee: 786 km (488 mi). Apogee: 788 km (489 mi). Inclination: 108.10 deg. Period: 100.60 min. Altimeter.
1998 October 3 - 10:04 GMT - Vandenberg 576E. ARPA Taurus T3 1110 STEX Spacecraft: STEX. Agency: NRO. Perigee: 744 km (462 mi). Apogee: 759 km (472 mi). Inclination: 84.99 deg. Period: 99.77 min. Tested TAL-D55 plasma engine and was to be part of the NRO's ATex tether experiment. The ATeX lower end mass was meant to remain attached to the STEX parent spacecraft, but with only 21 m of tether deployed, it appeared the tether was so far off vertical that automatic safety systems jettisoned the base to protect the remainder of the STEX satellite. Thus, the upper and lower ATeX end masses were in orbit as one object connected by a 21 m tether, and designated USA 141 (1998-055C). The main STEX satellite was in orbit as a separate object, 1998-055A.
1999 December 21 - 07:13 GMT - Vandenberg 576E. Taurus 2110 T4 Kompsat Mass: 470 kg (1,030 lb). Spacecraft: KOMPSAT. Agency: KARI. Perigee: 690 km (420 mi). Apogee: 722 km (448 mi). Inclination: 98.30 deg. Korean Multipurpose Satellite; carried an ocean color sensor developed by TRW and particle detectors. KOMPSAT was built by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) based on a test model built by TRW; it used the TRW STEP Lightsat bus and had a mass of around 500 kg, with 73 kg of hydrazine fuel.
2000 March 12 - 09:29 GMT - Vandenberg 576E. Taurus 1110 T5 MTI Mass: 587 kg (1,294 lb). Spacecraft: MTI. Agency: Sandia. Perigee: 574 km (357 mi). Apogee: 609 km (378 mi). Inclination: 97.40 deg. Period: 96.42 min. Military Technology. Sandia Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI), aka USAF Space Test Program mission P97-3. The satellite was equipped with a hyperspectral imager for military target recognition / treaty monitoring applications.
2001 September 21 - 18:49 GMT - Vandenberg 576E. Taurus 2110 T6 FAILURE: A problem a few seconds after first stage separation caused the rocket to go off course; it recovered and the remainder of the stages fired, but final cutoff velocity was too low to reach a sustainable orbit. Orbview-4 Mass: 368 kg (811 lb). Spacecraft: Orbview. Agency: Orbimage (U.S.). Launch delayed from June 27, July 18/22, August 12/21 and September1. The Orbital Sciences Taurus 2110 failed to remain in orbit. A problem a few seconds after first stage separation caused the T6 rocket to go off course; the rocket recovered and the remainder of the stages fired, but final cutoff velocity was too low to reach a sustainable orbit. The Castor 120 zero stage was on course but the Orion 50S first stage motor went off course. The satellites separated from the final stage as planned but burned up in the earth's atmosphere northeast of Madagascar before completing the first orbit. The final orbit was about 75-80 km x 425-430 km x 97 deg. The primary payload was the OrbView-4 imaging satellite. OrbView-4, built by Orbital, was a 368 kg box-shaped spacecraft carrying a 1-m resolution panchromatic camera and an 8-m resolution 200-channel hyperspectral imager with a 0.45-meter aperture. It was to be used by the US Air Force.
2004 May 20 - 17:47 GMT - Vandenberg 576E. Taurus 3210 T7 (XL) ROCSAT 2 Mass: 760 kg (1,670 lb). Spacecraft: ROCSAT. Agency: NSPO (Taiwan). Perigee: 887 km (551 mi). Apogee: 891 km (553 mi). Inclination: 99.10 deg. Period: 102.80 min. Delayed from October, November 25, 2003; January 17, February 26, April 9 and 22, May 17, 2004.
Bibliography:- McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page (launch records), Harvard University, 1997-present. Web Address when accessed: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.
- JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Web Address when accessed: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.
- Hesse, Walter J and Mumford, Nicholas VS Jr;, Jet Propulsion for Aerospace Applications - Second Edition, Pitman Publishing, New York, 1964.
- NASA GSFC Orbital Parameters,
- McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. Web Address when accessed: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html.
- NASA/GSFC Orbital Information Group Website, Web Address when accessed: http://oig1.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
- Space-Launcher.com, Orbital Report News Agency. Web Address when accessed: http://www.orbireport.com/Log.html.
