Northrop Grumman’s Minotaur-4 rocket launches three payloads for War Department
Northrop Grumman early this morning successfully placed three experimental payloads into orbit for the War Department’s Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), its Minotaur-4 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
NRL’s payloads included the Lasersheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation (LARADO) instrument; the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Orbiting Situational Awareness Sensor (GOSAS); and the Gadolinium Aluminum Gallium Garnet (GAGG) Radiation Instrument (GARI-1C).
The first is testing new methods for tracking space junk, the second improved GPS-type location and navigation for military operations, and the third new gamma-ray detection technology for tracking nuclear tests.
This was Northrop Grumman’s first launch in 2026, so the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged:
42 SpaceX
16 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Northrop Grumman early this morning successfully placed three experimental payloads into orbit for the War Department’s Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), its Minotaur-4 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
NRL’s payloads included the Lasersheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation (LARADO) instrument; the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Orbiting Situational Awareness Sensor (GOSAS); and the Gadolinium Aluminum Gallium Garnet (GAGG) Radiation Instrument (GARI-1C).
The first is testing new methods for tracking space junk, the second improved GPS-type location and navigation for military operations, and the third new gamma-ray detection technology for tracking nuclear tests.
This was Northrop Grumman’s first launch in 2026, so the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged:
42 SpaceX
16 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Hey Bob, now that we have several bit players not appearing on the leader board, could you please list a total orbital launches for 2026 so it is easy to compare the leaders percentages?
Thanks foe all the great articles!
Bill Buhler: If I remember.
”Northrop Grumman early this morning successfully placed three experimental payloads into orbit for the War Department’s Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)…”
Note: Those are just the three payloads on the STPsat-7 satellite. There were five other smallsats on this mission. FYI.