Minotaur C rocket carrying 10 spacecraft launches from Vandenberg

A skinny four-stage rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in northern Santa Barbara County on Tuesday on a mission carrying 10 commercial spacecraft into orbit.

The Minotaur C rocket, built by Orbital ATK, blasted off from Space Launch Complex-576E at 2:37 p.m.

A short time later, a launch team member announced that the rocket’s fairing had separated and fully deployed.

It was the key milestone for the rebranded rocket formerly called Taurus and plagued by a number of technical troubles involving the nose cone failing to fall away as scheduled.

The rocket carried six SkySat craft and four Dove satellites for Planet, with deployment set to begin more than 13 minutes after liftoff and the final craft delivered more than 19 minutes after departing Vandenberg.

Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz.

This story was originally published October 31, 2017 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Minotaur C rocket carrying 10 spacecraft launches from Vandenberg."