May 20, 2009

A SoftRide whole-spacecraft isolation system provided by CSA Engineering supported the TacSat-3 satellite yesterday as it entered space aboard Orbital Sciences Corporation's Minotaur I launch vehicle. The mission launched flawlessly on May 19, 2009 from Wallops Flight Facility located on Virginia's east shore at 7:55 p.m. EDT.

This mission presented many unique challenges for the SoftRide design team and in order to address all design constraints a specifically tailored OmniFlex isolator was manufactured and qualified for flight.

This was CSA Engineering's eighteenth launch of a SoftRide system and the sixth system for the Minotaur I launch vehicle. The other vehicles which have used SoftRide include Delta II, Delta IV, Atlas, Taurus and Pegasus.