CPT531 : MINOTAUR ROCKET : Crypticon Recon Photo

IMAGE TAKEN ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2005

DURING STANDARD COVERT OPS, AGENT DARKNIGHT OF THE CRYPTICON CAPTURED THIS RECON PHOTO OF A MILITARY MINOTAUR ROCKET CARRYING A SECRETIVE PAYLOAD.

VENUS IS SEEN IN THE LOWER LEFT HORIZON.

THE CONTRAIL SEPARATION IS FROM THE TRANSITION OF THE 2 SUB-ORBITAL STAGES. THE SECOND STAGE PLUME APPEARED TO BE LIKE A MOVING TRANSLUCENT DOUBLE WALLED SQUID HEAD PUSHING THE MASSIVE INVISIBLE PAYLOAD DIAGONALLY, AS THE VANTAGE POINT FROM SAN DIEGO HAS THE ROCKET CLOCKED IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE, BUT SEEMINGLY 'LOW' FROM THE EARTH PERSPECTIVE WE ARE POSITIONED AT.

THE FOLLOWING EXERPTS COME FROM SPACE.COM:


---When the sun goes down at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base tonight, an obscure little satellite will blast off to begin its year-long mission for the U.S. military's research and development agency.

The Space Test Program-R1 project's Streak satellite carries a classified price tag and limited details about its underlying purpose. But the launch should be widely visible throughout central and southern California, perhaps as far inland as Arizona and Nevada, if weather conditions permit, when the Minotaur rocket roars into space to deploy its cargo.

Liftoff from the Space Launch Complex 8 pad located on Vandenberg's southern edge will occur during a window extending from 7:24 to 7:40 p.m. PDT.

Ascending skyward along a southerly trajectory over the Pacific, the slender white rocket has the potential to produce a spectacular "twilight phenomenon" display of green, blue, white and rose colors in expanding, twisting clouds. The cause: unburned fuel particles and water drops in the rocket's contrail freeze in the less dense upper atmosphere and get reflected by sunlight at high altitudes during launches timed just before sunrise or shortly after sunset.

The Orbital Sciences-managed Minotaur rocket is formed by using decommissioned first and second stages from a Minuteman 2 ICBM missile and solid-propellant motors from the commercial Pegasus rocket program for its third and fourth stages. The vehicle is designed to provide the U.S. government with reliable access to space for small satellites.

Air Force launch officials say it will take about nine minutes for the Minotaur to haul the STP-R1 mission to the desired orbit tonight. The satellite, dubbed Streak by its operator, will test technologies for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"Streak is a technology demonstrator whose objective is to demonstrate rapid response, short mission life, low Earth orbit space technologies and gather information about the low Earth orbit environment," a DARPA spokesperson said.

Information released by DARPA indicates Streak is fitted with two instruments -- an ion gauge and an atomic oxygen sensor.

General Dynamics C4 Systems/Spectrum Astro Space Systems built the craft in Gilbert, Arizona.

DARPA is the Defense Department organization whose mission is "to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research that bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use."---

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