The Titan IIIA or Titan 3A was an American

expendable launch system An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are either destroyed during reentry or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of several rocket sta ...

, launched four times in 1964 and 1965, to test the

Transtage Transtage, given the United States Air Force designation SSB-10A, was an American upper stage used on Titan III rockets, developed by Martin Marietta and Aerojet. History Transtage was developed in anticipation of a requirement to launch milita ...

upper stage which was intended for use on the larger

Titan IIIC The Titan IIIC was an expendable launch system used by the United States Air Force from 1965 until 1982. It was the first Titan booster to feature large solid rocket motors and was planned to be used as a launcher for the Dyna-Soar, though the s ...

. The Transtage was mounted atop two core stages derived from the

Titan II The Titan II was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the Glenn L. Martin Company from the earlier Titan I missile. Titan II was originally designed and used as an ICBM, but was later adapted as a medium-lift space l ...

. The Titan IIIA was also used as the core of the Titan IIIC. The Titan IIIA made its first flight on 1 September 1964. However, the Transtage failed to pressurize, resulting in a premature cutoff and failure to reach orbit. A second test on 10 December was successful. Two further launches occurred in 1965 with

Lincoln Experimental Satellite The Lincoln Experimental Satellite series was designed and built by Lincoln Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1965 and 1976, under USAF sponsorship, for testing devices and techniques for satellite communication. Developm ...

s, before the Titan IIIA was retired.

Launch history

References

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External links

Titan (rocket family) {{rocket-stub