Posted: Wed, Sep 28, 2011, 9:13 AM ET (1313 GMT)
A Minotaur 4 rocket successfully launched a small military communications satellite on Tuesday. The Orbital Sciences Corporation Minotaur 4+ lifted off from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska at 11:49 am EDT (1549 GMT) and placed the TacSat-4 satellite into an inclined elliptical orbit with a perigee of 185 kilometers and an apogee of 11,865 kilometers. The satellite carries a UHF communications payload to enable near-continuous communications at high latitudes, augmenting existing geosynchronous orbit communications satellites. The 450-kilogram satellite was built by a government/industry team led by the Naval Research Lab and johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab; part of the project was to mature small satellite technologies for future operationally responsive space (ORS) missions.

Related Links:

•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  Space News article
•  AP article
•  NRL press release
•  Orbital Sciences Corporation press release