Northrop Grumman launches Minotaur 4 rocket into space for the first time in 14 years

For the first time in almost 14 years, the American military industrial concern Northrop Grumman launched the Minotaur 4 rocket into space from the SLC-8 airfield. This was announced on April 16 by the Spaceflight Now portal.

"Northrop Grumman has completed its first flight of a Minotaur rocket from California in almost 14 years. The NROL-174 mission for the US National Directorate of Military Space Intelligence was on board the four-stage Minotaur 4 rocket," the report says.

The launch took place from the SLC-8 cosmodrome at 22:33 Moscow time. The company's press release did not provide details about what is on board the device.

The previous Minotaur 4 rocket was launched from the same airfield on February 6, 2011.

"The first three stages of the Minotaur 4 rocket consist of solid-fuel rocket engines from retired Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and the fourth stage is a commercial solid-fuel upper unit. The rocket is capable of launching up to 1,730 kg of payload into low Earth orbit," the portal says.

Holding the station: will Russian Federation and the U.S. increase cooperation in space with the arrival of Trump

Now the parties are limited to interaction within the ISS program

On February 27, SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 rocket with a Nova-C lander to the Moon. The launch took place from the spaceport in Florida, the rocket entered orbit. Nova-C is equipped with instruments for studying the organics and structure of the lunar soil. The device has a Nokia 4G transmitter for testing communications on the moon. NASA had planned to send a rover to the area, but the agency canceled the mission last year.