[nilstycho]

I think there are only two US rocket stages in LEO that were launched in the past 21 months:

1. 2024-125H — Firefly Alpha FLTA005 Stage 2, launching demo cubesats for NASA

2. 2025-077C — Orbital Minotaur IV (8) Stage 4 (Orion 38), launching a few spy satellites

Fun fact: the first stage of the latter rocket was manufactured in 1966.

[dan000892]

> the first stage of the [Minotaur IV] was manufactured in 1966.

Was it? Minotaurs repurposed components of Peacekeeper missiles. Development of the SR118 first stage motor—reused as the first stage on Minotaur IV—didn’t start until 1978. [1, pg16]

[1]: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20120016230/downloads/20...

[nilstycho]

Oops, you're right. I read that factoid [1] while searching for information about the 2025-077C, but it was about a different 2021 launch.

[1]: https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/06/15/three-nro-satellites-l...