Titan was a family of United States

expendable ''Expendable'' is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner, published in 1997 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints.Avon Books; HarperCollins Canada; SFBC/AvoNova. Paperback edition 1997, Eos Books. It i ...

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

s used between 1959 and 2005. The

Titan I The Martin Marietta SM-68A/HGM-25A Titan I was the United States' first multistage intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), in use from 1959 until 1962. Though the SM-68A was operational for only three years, it spawned numerous follow-on mode ...

and

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 ...

were part of the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet until 1987. The space launch vehicle versions contributed the majority of the 368 Titan launches, including all the Project Gemini crewed flights of the mid-1960s. Titan vehicles were also used to lift US military payloads as well as civilian agency reconnaissance satellites and to send interplanetary scientific probes throughout the Solar System.

Titan I missile

The HGM-25A Titan I, built by the Martin Company, was the first version of the Titan family of rockets. It began as a backup ICBM project in case the

SM-65 Atlas The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dy ...

was delayed. It was a two-stage rocket operational from early 1962 to mid-1965 whose

LR-87 The LR87 was an American liquid-propellant rocket engine used on the first stages of Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles and launch vehicles. Composed of twin motors with separate combustion chambers and turbopump machinery, it is cons ...

booster engine was powered by

RP-1 RP-1 (alternatively, Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) is a highly refined form of kerosene outwardly similar to jet fuel, used as rocket fuel. RP-1 provides a lower specific impulse than liquid hydrogen (LH2), but is cheaper, is s ...

(kerosene) and liquid oxygen (LOX). The ground guidance for the Titan was the

UNIVAC UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company an ...

ATHENA computer The UNIVAC Athena computer was the processor for ground commands to the HGM-25A Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as part of Western Electric's missile guidance system. The Athena was the "first transistorized digital computer t ...

, designed by

Seymour Cray Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996
) was an American

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

. The Titan II used the LR-87-5 engine, a modified version of the

, that used a hypergolic propellant combination of

nitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russia rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...

(NTO) for its oxidizer and

Aerozine 50 __NOTOC__ Aerozine 50 is a 50:50 mix by weight of hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), originally developed in the late 1950s by Aerojet General Corporation as a storable, high-energy, hypergolic fuel for the Titan II ICBM rocket e ...

(a 50/50 mix of hydrazine and

unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH; 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, НДМГ or codenamed Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is used as a rocket propellant. It is a colorless liquid, with a sharp, fishy, ammonia-like smell ...

(UDMH) instead of the liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellant of the Titan I. The first Titan II guidance system was built by

AC Spark Plug ACDelco is an American automotive parts brand owned by General Motors (GM). Factory parts for vehicles manufactured by GM are consolidated under the ACDelco brand, which also offers aftermarket parts for non-GM vehicles. Over its long history it ...

. It used an inertial measurement unit made by AC Spark Plug derived from original designs from the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory at MIT. The missile guidance computer (MGC) was the IBM ASC-15. When spares for this system became hard to obtain, it was replaced by a more modern guidance system, the

Delco Electronics Delco Electronics Corporation was the automotive electronics design and manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors based in Kokomo, Indiana, that manufactured ''Delco'' Automobile radios and other electric products found in GM cars. In 1972, Gene ...

Universal Space Guidance System (USGS). The USGS used a Carousel IV IMU and a Magic 352 computer. The USGS was already in use on the Titan III space launcher when work began in March 1978 to replace the Titan II guidance system. The main reason was to reduce the cost of maintenance by $72 million per year; the conversions were completed in 1981.

Hypergolic propellants

Liquid oxygen is dangerous to use in an enclosed space, such as a

missile silo A missile launch facility, also known as an underground missile silo, launch facility (LF), or nuclear silo, is a vertical cylindrical structure constructed underground, for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs ...

, 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 engine was 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

, a 50/50 mix of hydrazine and UDMH, and the oxidizer was NTO.

Accidents at 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 in fire in a missile silo northwest of Searcy, Arkansas. The fire started when hydraulic fluid used in the Titan II was ignited by a welding torch. The liquid fuel missiles were prone to developing leaks of their toxic propellants. At a silo outside

Rock, Kansas Rock is an unincorporated community in Cowley County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the community and nearby areas was 94. History 19th century The post office was established August 12, 1870. In 1877, the ...

, an oxidizer transfer line carrying NTO ruptured on August 24, 1978. An ensuing orange vapor cloud forced 200 rural residents to evacuate the area. A staff sergeant of the maintenance crew was killed while attempting a rescue and a total of twenty were hospitalized. Another site at

Potwin, Kansas Potwin is a city in Butler County, Kansas, Butler County, Kansas, United States. It is named after the town site land owner Charles Potwin. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 421. History Early hi ...

leaked NTO oxidizer in April 1980 with no fatalities, and was later closed. In September 1980, at Titan II silo 374-7 near

Damascus, Arkansas Damascus is a town in Faulkner and Van Buren counties of central Arkansas, United States. The population of Damascus was 382 at the 2010 census. History Damascus is a town located in the Oark foothills on a platea surrounded by clear streams al ...

, a technician dropped an socket that fell , bounced off a thrust mount, and broke the skin of the missile's first stage, over eight hours prior to an eventual explosion. The puncture occurred about 6:30 p.m. and when a leak was detected shortly after, the silo was flooded with water and civilian authorities were advised to evacuate the area. As the problem was being attended to at around 3 a.m., leaking rocket fuel ignited and blew the nuclear warhead out of the silo. It landed harmlessly several hundred feet away. There was one fatality and 21 were injured, all from the emergency response team from Little Rock AFB. The explosion blew the 740-ton launch tube cover into the air and left a crater in diameter.

Missile retirement

The 54 Titan IIs in Arizona, Arkansas, and Kansas were replaced by 50 MX "Peacekeeper" solid-fuel rocket missiles in the mid-1980s; the last Titan II silo was deactivated in May 1987. The 54 Titan IIs had been fielded along with a thousand

Minuteman Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Mi ...

missiles from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. A number of Titan I and Titan II missiles have been distributed as museum displays across the United States.

Titan II launch vehicle

The most famous use of the civilian Titan II was in the NASA Gemini program of crewed space capsules in the mid-1960s. Twelve Titan II GLVs were used to launch two U.S. uncrewed Gemini test launches and ten crewed capsules with two-person crews. All of the launches were successful.

Titan 23G

Starting in the late 1980s, some of the deactivated Titan IIs were converted into space

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and ...

s to be used for launching U.S. Government payloads. Titan 23G rockets consisted of two stages burning

liquid propellant A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...

. The first stage was powered by one Aerojet

LR87 The LR87 was an American liquid-propellant rocket engine used on the first stages of Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles and launch vehicles. Composed of twin motors with separate combustion chambers and turbopump machinery, it is cons ...

engine with two combustion chambers and nozzles, and the second stage was propelled by an LR91. On some flights, the spacecraft included a kick motor, usually the Star-37XFP-ISS; however, the Star-37S was also used. Thirteen were launched from Space Launch Complex 4W (SLC-4W) at

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida * Vandenberg Sp ...

starting in 1988. The final such vehicle launched a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) weather satellite on 18 October 2003.

Gallery

Titan II launch.jpg, Titan II ICBM Gemini-Titan 11 Launch - GPN-2000-001020.jpg, Titan II GLV Titan 23G rocket.gif, Titan 23G

Titan III

The Titan III was a modified Titan II with optional solid rocket boosters. It was developed on behalf of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

(USAF) 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. As USAF project, Titan III was more formally known as Program 624A (SSLS), Standard Space Launch System, Standardized Space Launch System, Standardized Space Launching System or Standard Space Launching System (all abbreviated SSLS). The Titan III core was similar to the Titan II, but had a few differences. These included: *Thicker tank walls and ablative skirts to support the added weight of upper stages *Radio ground guidance in place of the inertial guidance on ICBM Titan IIs *Guidance package placed on the upper stages (if present) *Removal of retrorockets and other unnecessary ICBM hardware *Slightly larger propellant tanks in the second stage for longer burn time; since they expanded into some unused space in the avionics truss, the actual length of the stage remained unchanged. The Titan III family used the same basic LR-87 engines as Titan II (with performance enhancements over the years), however SRB-equipped variants had a heat shield over them as protection from the SRB exhaust and the engines were modified for air-starting.

Avionics

The first guidance system for the Titan III used the AC Spark Plug company IMU (inertial measurement unit) and an IBM ASC-15 guidance computer from the Titan II. For the Titan III, the 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 a Delco Carousel VB IMU and MAGIC 352 Missile Guidance Computer (MGC).

Titan IIIA

The Titan IIIA was a prototype rocket booster and consisted of a standard Titan II rocket with a

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.

Titan IIIB

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

KH-8 GAMBIT The KH-8 (BYEMAN codename Gambit-3) was a long-lived series of reconnaissance satellites of the "Key Hole" (KH) series used by the United States from July 1966 to April 1984, and also known as Low Altitude Surveillance Platform. The satellite ej ...

series of intelligence-gathering satellites. They were all launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, due south over the Pacific into

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

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

Titan IIIC

The powerful Titan IIIC used a Titan III core rocket with two large strap-on solid-fuel boosters to increase its launch thrust and maximum payload mass. 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.

Titan IIID

The Titan IIID was the Vandenberg Air Force Base version of the Titan IIIC, without a Transtage, that was used to place members of the Key Hole series of reconnaissance satellites into polar

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

Titan IIIE

The Titan IIIE, with a high- specific-impulse Centaur upper stage, was used to launch several scientific spacecraft, including both of NASA's two Voyager space probes to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond, and both of the two

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

missions to place two orbiters around Mars and two instrumented landers on its surface.

Titan 34D

The Titan 34D featured Stage 1 and Stage 2 stretched with more powerful UA1206 solid motors. A variety of upper stages were available, including the

Inertial Upper Stage The Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), originally designated the Interim Upper Stage, was a two-stage, solid-fueled space launch system developed by Boeing for the United States Air Force beginning in 1976 for raising payloads from low Earth orbit to ...

, the

Transfer Orbit Stage The Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS) was an upper stage developed by Martin Marietta for Orbital Sciences Corporation during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The TOS was designed to be a lower-cost alternative to Inertial Upper Stage and Centaur G u ...

, and the

. The Titan 34D made its maiden flight in the year of 1982 on the 30th of October with two DSCS defense

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

s for the United States Department of Defense (DOD).

Commercial Titan III

Derived from the Titan 34D and originally proposed as a medium-lift expendable launch system for the US Air Force, who selected the Delta II instead. Development was continued as a commercial launch system, and the first rocket flew in 1990. The Commercial Titan III differed from the Titan 34D in that it had a stretched second stage, and a larger payload fairing to accommodate dual satellite payloads.

Titan IIIM

The Titan IIIM was intended to launch the Manned Orbiting Laboratory and other payloads. Development was cancelled in 1969. The projected UA1207 solid booster rockets were eventually used on the

Titan IV Titan IV was a family of heavy-lift space launch vehicles developed by Martin Marietta and operated by the United States Air Force from 1989 to 2005. Launches were conducted from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Vandenberg Air Forc ...

Gallery

Titan IIIA.jpg, Launch of the first Titan IIIA Titan 23B.jpg, Titan 23B launching KH-8 reconnaissance satellite DF-SC-84-05192 cropped.jpeg, Launch of a Titan IIIC Titan IIID rocket.jpg, Launch of a Titan IIID Titan 3E Centaur launches Voyager 2.jpg, Launch of a Titan IIIE with Voyager 2 DF-SC-83-03173 cropped.jpeg, Launch of the Titan 34D Commercial Titan 3 launching Mars Observer.jpg, Commercial Titan 3 launching Mars Observer

Titan IV

The Titan IV was an extended length Titan III with solid rocket boosters on its sides. The Titan IV could be launched with a Centaur upper stage, the USAF

(IUS), or no upper stage at all. This rocket was used almost exclusively to launch US military or Central Intelligence Agency payloads. However, it was also used for a purely scientific purpose to launch the NASA–ESA Cassini / Huygens space probe to Saturn in 1997. The primary intelligence agency that needed the Titan IV's launch capabilities was the

National Reconnaissance Office The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. fe ...

(NRO). When it was being produced, the Titan IV was the most powerful uncrewed rocket available to the United States, with proportionally high manufacturing and operations expenses. By the time the Titan IV became operational, the requirements of the Department of Defense and the NRO for launching satellites had tapered off due to improvements in the longevity of reconnaissance satellites and the declining demand for reconnaissance that followed the internal disintegration of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. As a result of these events and improvements in technology, the unit cost of a Titan IV launch was very high. Additional expenses were generated by the ground operations and facilities for the Titan IV at Vandenberg Air Force Base for launching satellites into polar orbits. Titan IVs were also launched from the

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...

in Florida for non-polar orbits.

Titan V concept

The Titan V was a proposed development of the Titan IV, that saw several designs being suggested. One Titan V proposal was for an enlarged Titan IV, capable of lifting up to of payload. Another used a cryogenic first stage with LOX/LH2 propellants; however the

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Mart ...

EELV was selected for production instead.

Launch vehicle retirement

Most of the decommissioned Titan II ICBMs were refurbished and used for Air Force space launch vehicles, with a perfect launch success record. For orbital launches, there were strong advantages to using higher-performance liquid hydrogen or RP-1 fueled vehicles with liquid oxygen; the high cost of using hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, along with the special care that was needed due to their toxicity, were a further consideration. Lockheed Martin decided to extend its

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

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

Proton rocket Proton (Russian: Протон) (formal designation: UR-500) is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965. Modern versions of the launch system are sti ...

and the new

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

-built

Delta IV Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, t ...

class of medium and heavy-lift launch vehicles. The Titan IVB was the last Titan rocket to remain in service, making its penultimate launch from Cape Canaveral on 30 April 2005, followed by its final launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 19 October 2005, carrying the USA-186 optical imaging satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Notes

References

* Bonds, Ray Editor. ''The Modern US War Machine: An encyclopedia of American military equipment and strategy.'' Crown Publishers, New York City 1989. * USAF Sheppard Technical Training Center. "Student Study Guide, Missile Launch/Missile Officer (LGM-25)." May 1967. pp. 61–65. Available at WikiMedia Commons: TitanII MGC.pdf * Larson, Paul O. "Titan III Inertial Guidance System," in AIAA Second Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 26–29 July 1965, pp. 1–11. * Liang, A.C. and Kleinbub, D.L. "Navigation of the Titan IIIC space launch vehicle using the Carousel VB IMU". AIAA Guidance and Control Conference, Key Biscayne, FL, 20–22 August 1973. AIAA Paper No. 73-905. * Stumpf, David K. ''Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program.'' The University of Arkansas Press, 2000.

External links

Titan history
at astronautix.com – includes chronology of launches and variants
Footage of November 1963 launch of Titan II
at archive.org (b/w; 0m59s; includes early use of 'rocket cam' technology) * (color; 13m33s)

at fas.org ( Federation of American Scientists)
Titan II
at fas.org

at fas.org
Explosion at 374-7
– Details of the September 1980 Arkansas silo explosion

at the

APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is a website provided by NASA and Michigan Technological University (MTU). According to the website, "Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written ...

archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Titan (Rocket Family) Rocket families Intercontinental ballistic missiles of the United States Cold War weapons of the United States Nuclear weapons of the United States Military space program of the United States NASA space launch vehicles Lockheed Martin space launch vehicles

Titan I missile

Hypergolic propellants

Accidents at silos

Missile retirement

Titan II launch vehicle

Titan 23G

Gallery

Titan III

Avionics

Titan IIIA

Titan IIIB

Titan IIIC

Titan IIID

Titan IIIE

Titan 34D

Commercial Titan III

Titan IIIM

Gallery

Titan IV

Titan V concept

Launch vehicle retirement

See also

Notes

References

External links