Taurus (rocket)

Taurus is an American launch vehicle, which is manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation. Taurus is the ground- start variant of the Pegasus rocket, in which the carrier aircraft will be replaced by either the first stage of the Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile or its commercial derivative, the Castor -120 stage.

Your payload capacity is depending on the version 1180-1450 kilograms in a low orbit. The first launch took place in 1994, since then the missile is in service and has launched both military and commercial payloads. After the second false start a Taurus 3110 consecutively NASA has canceled the launch contract OSO 2. A requalification of the rocket would be needed before further launches.

Versions

The modular design of the Taurus rocket can be assembled according to need different configurations:

Taurus 2210 with GFO

3110 Taurus (Taurus -XL) with OCO

3110 Taurus (Taurus -XL) with Glory

Start list

This is a complete start list of the Taurus rocket. State of the list: March 4, 2011

¹ Gross Weight = ( Satellite Adapter, enclosure etc. )

² NOT necessarily the target orbit of the payload, but the path on which the payload from the upper stage to be exposed.

Planned start

State of the list: March 2, 2012

Taurus II

The significantly larger, in development Antares rocket was initially referred to as Taurus II, although it technically has nothing in common with the Taurus rocket. On December 12, 2011 Orbital announced that the name of the rocket of Taurus II on Antares has changed.

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