TacSat-3 Scrubbed Again

A last-minute anomaly with the flight termination system forced controllers to scrub another attempt to launch the U.S. Air Force TacSat-3 test bed on a Minotaur 1 rocket, delaying the mission until May 19 at the earliest.

The launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, which had been scrubbed twice last week for bad weather at the launch site on Virginia's Eastern Shore, was halted at 10:43 p.m. EDT May 8, about two minutes before the scheduled liftoff. Controllers ordered a hold when they realized the system that would destroy the rocket in flight if it veered off course wasn't working properly.

Mission managers said the launch would be delayed at least 10 days, with a new date to be set this week.

The $60 million satellite carries a trio of experimental payloads - as well as two piggyback satellites. Mounted on TacSat-3 itself are an experimental target identification and battle damage assessment sensor; a sea-buoy data-retrieval experiment, and a plug-and-play avionics package that needs flight validation.

Flying piggyback on the solid-fuel Minotaur 1 are NASA's PharmaSat microsatellite and CubeSat Technology Demonstration.

TacSat-3 photo: U.S. Air Force