A satellite designed to make it safer for troops on the ground to communicate by radio launched today from Alaska. The TacSat-4 blasted off this morning from the Alaska Aerospace Corporation's Kodiak Launch Complex encapsulated inside a Minotaur-IV+ missile. The Air Force has used the Minotaur missile in years past to deliver nuclear weapons, according to the Associated Press.
The United States Naval Research Laboratory built the satellite along with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
The NRL posted this time-lapse video of researchers working to encapsulate the TacSat-4 inside the Minotaur missile. Take a look:
http://youtu.be/c0PanNVqKXI
