A Taurus XL (Minotaur-C) failed after second-stage ignition when a nozzle gimbal actuator seized, knocking the vehicle off course; it never reached stable orbit and reentered near Madagascar, destroying ORBIMAGE's OrbView-4 imager, NASA's QuikTOMS ozone instrument, and the EarthView-04 microsatellite.
- Outcome
- Failure
- Orbit
- SSO
- Sun-synchronous orbit
- Payload to orbit
- Did not reach orbit
- Flight
- 2nd
- of 2 Minotaur-C 2110 flights
- Date and time
- 21 September 2001, 18:49 UTC
- Rocket
- Minotaur-C 2110
- Builder
- OSC
- Launch site
- Space Launch Complex 576E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
- Payload
- Earth Science
- Launches in 2001
- 42nd of 59