Titan (rocket family) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Titan was a family of U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Expendable launch system

An expendable launch system is a launch system that uses an expendable launch vehicle to carry a payload into space. The vehicles used in expendable launch systems are designed to be used only once , and their components are not recovered for re-use after launch...

rocket

Rocket

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...

s used between 1959 and 2005. A total of 368 rockets of this family were launched, including all the Project Gemini manned flights of the mid-1960s. Titans were part of the American intercontinental ballistic missile deterrent until the late 1980s, and lifted other American military payloads as well as civilian agency intelligence-gathering satellites. Titans also were used to send highly successful interplanetary scientific probes to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Titan I

The Titan I
Titan I
The Martin Marietta SM-68A/HGM-25A Titan I was the United States' first multistage ICBM . Incorporating the latest design technology when designed and manufactured, the Titan I provided an additional nuclear deterrent to complement the U.S. Air Force's SM-65 Atlas missile...

was the first version of the Titan family of rockets. It began as a backup ICBM project in case the Atlas

Atlas (missile)

The SM-65 Atlas was the first intercontinental ballistic missile developed and deployed by the United States. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by Convair Division of General Dynamics at the Kearny Mesa assembly plant north of San Diego, California...

was delayed. It was a two-stage rocket powered by RP-1

RP-1

RP-1 is a highly refined form of kerosene outwardly similar to jet fuel, used as a rocket fuel. Although having a lower specific impulse than liquid hydrogen , RP-1 is cheaper, can be stored at room temperature, is far less of an explosive hazard and is far denser...

and Liquid Oxygen

Liquid oxygen

Liquid oxygen — abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries — is one of the physical forms of elemental oxygen.-Physical properties:...

. It was operational from early 1962 to mid-1965. The ground guidance for the Titan was the Unisys Athena computer, designed by Seymour Cray, based in a hardened underground bunker. Using radar data, it made course corrections during the burn phase.

Titan II

Most of the Titan rockets were the Titan II ICBM and their civilian derivatives for NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

. The Titan II used a hypergolic combination of nitrogen tetroxide and Aerozine 50

Aerozine 50

Aerozine 50 is a 50/50 mix of hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine . Originally developed in the late 1950s by Aerojet General Corporation as a storable, high-energy, hypergolic fuel for the Titan II ICBM rocket engines, Aerozine continues in wide use as a rocket fuel, typically with...

(a 50/50 mix of hydrazine

Hydrazine

Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the formula N2H4. It is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odor. Hydrazine is highly toxic and dangerously unstable unless handled in solution. Approximately 260,000 tons are manufactured annually...

and UDMH) for its oxidizer and fuel.

The first Titan II guidance system was built by AC Spark Plug. It used an IMU (inertial measurement unit, a gyroscopic sensor) made by AC Spark Plug derived from original designs from MIT Draper Labs. The missile guidance computer (MGC) was the IBM ASC-15

ASC-15

The ASC-15 was a digital computer developed by International Business Machines for use on the Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile . It was subsequently modified and used on the Titan III and Saturn I Block II launch vehicles. Its principal function on these rockets was to make navigation...

. When spares for this system became hard to obtain, it was replaced by a more modern guidance system, the Delco Universal Space Guidance System (USGS). The USGS used a Carousel IV IMU and a Magic 352 computer.

The most famous use of the civilian Titan II was in the NASA Gemini program of manned space capsules in the mid-1960s. Twelve Titan IIs were used to launch two U.S. unmanned Gemini test launches and ten manned capsules with two-man crews. All of the launches were successes.

Also, in the late 80s some of the deactivated Titan IIs were converted into space launch vehicle

Launch vehicle

In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad and other infrastructure....

s to be used for launching U.S. Government payloads. The final such vehicle launched a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program monitors meteorological, oceanographic, and solar-terrestrial physics for the United States Department of Defense. The program is now run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The mission of the satellites was revealed in March 1973...

(DMSP) weather satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, on 18 October 2003.

Titan III

The Titan III was a modified Titan II with optional solid rocket booster

Solid rocket booster

Solid rocket boosters or Solid Rocket Motors, SRM, are used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from the launchpad up to burnout of the SRBs. Many launch vehicles include SRBs, including the Ariane 5, Atlas V , and the NASA Space Shuttle...

s. It was developed on behalf of the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

as a heavy-lift satellite launcher to be used mainly to launch American military payloads and civilian intelligence agency satellites such as the Vela Hotel nuclear-test-ban monitoring satellites, observation and reconnaissance satellites (for intelligence-gathering), and various series of defense communications satellites.

The Titan IIIA
Titan IIIA
The Titan IIIA or Titan 3A was an American expendable launch system, launched four times in 1964 and 1965, to test the Transtage upper stage which was intended for use on the larger Titan IIIC. The Transtage was mounted atop two core stages derived from the Titan II...

was a prototype rocket booster, which consisted of a standard Titan II rocket with a Transtage

Transtage

Transtage was an American upper stage used on Titan III rockets. 40 were launched, of which three failed.The first launch, boosted by a Titan IIIA carrier rocket, occurred on 1 September 1964. The Transtage failed to pressurise, resulting in premature engine cutoff, and a failure to reach orbit....

upper stage. The Titan IIIB with its different versions (23B, 24B, 33B, and 34B) had the Titan III core booster with an Agena D

RM-81 Agena

The RM-81 Agena was an American rocket upper stage and satellite support bus which was developed by Lockheed initially for the canceled WS-117L reconnaissance satellite program...

upper stage. This combination was used to launch the KH-8 GAMBIT series of intelligence-gathering satellites. They were all launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, due south over the Pacific into polar orbit

Polar orbit

A polar orbit is an orbit in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited on each revolution. It therefore has an inclination of 90 degrees to the equator...

s. Their maximum payload mass was about 7,500 lb (3,000 kg).

The powerful Titan IIIC used a Titan III core rocket with two large strap-on solid-fuel boosters to increase its launch thrust, and hence the maximum payload mass capability. The solid-fuel boosters that were developed for the Titan IIIC represented a significant engineering advance over previous solid-fueled rockets, due to their large size and thrust, and their advanced thrust-vector control systems. The Titan IIID
Titan IIID
The Titan IIID or Titan 3D was an American expendable launch system, launched twenty two times with KH-9 and KH-11 satellites between 1971 and 1982...

was a derivative of the Titan IIIC, without the upper transtage, that was used to place members of the Key Hole

Key Hole

Key Hole is the designation for a series of American optical reconnaissance satellites:* KH-1 Corona* KH-2 Corona* KH-3 Corona* KH-4 Corona* KH-5 Argon* KH-6 Lanyard* KH-7 Gambit* KH-8 Gambit 3* KH-9 Hexagon/Big Bird...

series of reconnaissance satellites into low Earth orbit

Low Earth orbit

A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...

s. The Titan IIIE
Titan IIIE
The Titan IIIE or Titan 3E, also known as Titan III-Centaur was an American expendable launch system, launched seven times between 1974 and 1977...

, the one with an additional high-specific-impulse

Specific impulse

Specific impulse is a way to describe the efficiency of rocket and jet engines. It represents the derivative of the impulse with respect to amount of propellant used, i.e., the thrust divided by the amount of propellant used per unit time. If the "amount" of propellant is given in terms of mass ,...

Centaur upper stage, was used to launch several scientific spacecraft, including both of NASA

NASA

's two Voyager

Voyager program

The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...

space probes to Jupiter

Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...

, Saturn

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...

and beyond, and both of the two Viking

Viking program

The Viking program consisted of a pair of American space probes sent to Mars, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts, an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface...

missions to place two orbiters around Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

and two instrumented landers on its surface.

The first guidance system for the Titan III used the AC Spark Plug company IMU (inertial measurement unit) and an IBM ASC-15

ASC-15

guidance computer from the Titan II. For the Titan III, the ASC-15

ASC-15

drum memory of the computer was lengthened to add 20 more usable tracks, which increased its memory capacity by 35%.

The more-advanced Titan IIIC used the Delco Carousel VI IMU and the Magic 352 guidance computer.

Titan IV

The Titan IV
Titan IV
The Titan IV family of space boosters were used by the U.S. Air Force. They were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. At the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the "largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force."The...

is a "stretched" Titan III with non-optional solid rocket boosters on its sides. The Titan IV could be launched with a Centaur

Centaur (rocket stage)

Centaur is a rocket stage designed for use as the upper stage of space launch vehicles. Centaur boosts its satellite payload to geosynchronous orbit or, in the case of an interplanetary space probe, to or near to escape velocity...

upper stage, the USAF Inertial Upper Stage

Inertial Upper Stage

The Inertial Upper Stage , originally known as the Interim Upper Stage, is a two-stage solid-fueled booster rocket developed by the U.S...

(IUS), or no upper stage at all. This rocket was used almost exclusively to launch American military or civilian intelligence agency payloads. However it was also used for a purely scientific purpose to launch the NASA - ESA Cassini / Huygens space probe to Saturn

Saturn

in 1997. The primary intelligence agency that needed the Titan IV's launch capabilities was the National Reconnaissance Office

National Reconnaissance Office

The National Reconnaissance Office , located in Chantilly, Virginia, is one of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. It designs, builds, and operates the spy satellites of the United States government.-Mission:...

, the NRO.

By the time it became available, the Titan IV was the most powerful unmanned rocket produced and used by United States, because the extremely large and powerful Saturn V

Saturn V

The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...

rocket had not been available for some years.
Still, the Titan IV was considered to be quite expensive to manufacture and use. By the time the Titan IV became operational, the requirements of the U.S. Department of Defense and the NRO for launching satellites had tapered off due to improvements in the longevity of reconnaissance satellites, and in addition, the declining foreign threat to the security of the United States that followed the internal disintegration of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.

As a result of these events, and improvements in technology, when including the cost of the ground operations and facilities for the Titan IV at Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....

for launching satellites into polar orbits, the unit cost of a Titan IV launch was very high. Titan IVs were also launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Command's 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Located on Cape Canaveral in the state of Florida, CCAFS is the primary launch head of America's Eastern Range with four launch pads...

in Florida for non-polar orbits..

Rocket fuel

Liquid oxygen is dangerous to use in an enclosed space, such as a missile silo, and cannot be stored for long periods in the booster oxidizer tank. Several Atlas and Titan I rockets exploded and destroyed their silos. The Martin Company was able to improve the design with the Titan II. The RP-1/LOX combination was replaced by a room-temperature fuel whose oxidizer did not require cryogenic storage. The same first stage rocket engines were used with some modifications. The diameter of the second stage was increased to match the first stage. The Titan II's hypergolic fuel and oxidizer ignited on contact, but they were highly toxic and corrosive liquids. The fuel was Aerozine 50

Aerozine 50

(a 50/50 mix of hydrazine

Hydrazine

and UDMH) and the oxidizer was nitrogen tetroxide.

Accidents at Titan II silos

There were several accidents in Titan II silos resulting in loss of life and/or serious injuries. In August 1965, 53 construction workers were killed when hydraulic fluid used in the Titan II caught fire in a missile silo northwest of Searcy, Arkansas

Searcy, Arkansas

Searcy is the largest city and county seat of White County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,663. It is the principal city of the Searcy, AR Micropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of White County...

. The liquid fuel missiles were prone to developing leaks of their toxic propellants. One airman was killed at a site outside Rock, Kansas

Rock, Kansas

Rock is an unincorporated community in Cowley County, Kansas, United States.-19th century:The post office was established August 12, 1870. The nearby Bucher Bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places....

, on August 24, 1978 when a missile in its silo leaked propellant. Later, another site, at Potwin, Kansas

Potwin, Kansas

Potwin is a city in Butler County, Kansas, United States. It is named after the town site land owner Charles Potwin. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 449.-19th century:Potwin was incorporated as a town on April 8, 1885...

, leaked fuel and was closed, but there were no fatalities. In September 1980, at another Titan II silo (374-7) near Damascus, Arkansas

Damascus, Arkansas

Damascus is a town in Faulkner and Van Buren counties in the central part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its portion within Faulkner County is part of the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, a technician dropped a wrench that broke the skin of the missile. Leaking rocket fuel ignited and blew the 8,000 lb nuclear warhead out of the silo. It landed harmlessly several hundred feet away. This marked the beginning of the end for the Titan II as an ICBM. The 54 Titan II's were replaced in the U.S. arsenal by 50 MX "Peacekeeper" solid-fuel rocket missiles in late 1980s. 54 Titan IIs had been fielded along with some 1000 Minutemen

LGM-30 Minuteman

The LGM-30 Minuteman is a U.S. nuclear missile, a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile . As of 2010, the version LGM-30G Minuteman-III is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States...

from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. Most of the decommissioned Titan II ICBMs were refurbished and used for Air Force space launch vehicles, with a perfect launch success record.

Current status of Titans

As of 2006, the Titan family of rockets is obsolete. The high cost of using hydrazine

Hydrazine

and nitrogen tetroxide, along with the special care that was needed due to their toxicity, proved too much compared to the higher-performance liquid hydrogen

Liquid hydrogen

Liquid hydrogen is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form.To exist as a liquid, H2 must be pressurized above and cooled below hydrogen's Critical point. However, for hydrogen to be in a full liquid state without boiling off, it needs to be...

or RP-1

RP-1

-fueled vehicles (kerosene), with a liquid oxygen

Liquid oxygen

Liquid oxygen — abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries — is one of the physical forms of elemental oxygen.-Physical properties:...

oxidizer. The current owners of the Titan family of rockets, the Lockheed-Martin company, decided to extend its Atlas

Atlas (rocket family)

Atlas is a family of U.S. space launch vehicles. The original Atlas missile was designed in the late 1950s and produced by the Convair Division of General Dynamics, to be used as an intercontinental ballistic missile...

family of rockets instead of its more expensive Titans—along with participating in joint-ventures to sell launches on the Russian Proton

Proton rocket

Proton is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965 and the launch system is still in use as of 2011, which makes it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight...

rocket and the new Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

-built Delta IV

Delta rocket

Delta is a versatile family of expendable launch systems that has provided space launch capability in the United States since 1960. There have been more than 300 Delta rockets launched, with a 95 percent success rate. Two Delta launch systems – Delta II and Delta IV – are in active use...

class of medium and heavy-lift launch vehicles. The next-to-last Titan rocket was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral on 29 April 2005. The final Titan rocket was launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....

on 19 October 2005, carrying a secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office

National Reconnaissance Office

(NRO).

See HGM-25A Titan I and LGM-25C Titan II pages for disposition of the remaining museum displays across the USA.

External links

Video of a Titan I missile launch
Video of a Titan II missile launch
Video of the first Titan III-C launch (June 1965)
Photo of the last Titan launch, at the APOD archive.
Titan missiles & variations
Explosion at 374-7 - Details of the September 1980 Arkansas silo explosion

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Titan I

Titan II

Titan III

Titan IV

Rocket fuel

Accidents at Titan II silos

Current status of Titans

See also

External links