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Last Titan Launch from Florida
The Breeze writes "Driving along San Diego's freeways, I often passed a large Lockheed Martin facility that had big ATLAS and TITAN logos on them - it looked like it was still operating, even though I thought the Titan missile had been retired years ago. Well, according to CNN, the last Titan to be launched from Florida just took off with a classified military payload. I had no idea that they were still using 50-year old technology to launch stuff into space. If you are not adverse to MS Word documents, Patrick AFB, (the Air Force station at Cape Canaveral) has some press releases about the launch. Interested parties might want to click here for more info on Titan, along with links to the Titan Missile Museum where you can actually see a Titan in a silo -- and where Zeframe Cochrane launched his first warp ship from."
But it's not the last Titan, just the last to launch from Cape Canaveral. According to the article on Florida Today: "This Titan is the last of a family of 168 to be launched from Cape Canaveral. One last flight is scheduled to take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California."
Quite the powerhorse. Congrats to all who worked on it over the years for jobs well done.
The last Skylark rocket is to be launched on Sunday. It's also a 50 year old rocket!
Amazing to think there was a British space program once!
The Booster that flew was a Titan 4B (and is not the last Titan-4B to fly, just the last at the Cape--One more will fly from Vandenberg) The Titan 4B first flew in 1997 and was an upgraded verson of the Titan 4 that first flew in the mid 80s. The Titan 4 was primarly used as a replacement for Mil Payloads after Challenger. The Titan 3 was a workhorse of launchers during the 70s (Including Voyager and Viking). The Titan 2 serverd as the bases of the following lines and was an ICBM and booster for Gemini. The Titan Rocket that flew is not old tech wise, its old in the same sense as the cars we drive today being based on improved designs of the past. Please google before you post something without knowing all the facts.
Deltas (II and IV) and Atlas (V) are still much newer and going strong. I don't think there will be a shortage of rockets for military satellites in the near future.
Because the Atlas V and Delta IV EELV's (Evolved Expendible Launch Vehicle) put the old Titans to shame; they are are chaeper per kilo to LEO and can be clustered together to form a Saturn I-class LV....
;)
Simon
Beautiful launch on a beautiful launch and a fitting end to a legacy and a tradition in space.
A memorable night there for those who attended and worked many years at the Cape.
Parent is right AND wrong about 50-year old technology. The basic premise is the same in processing but the avionics and software are FAR from ancient and are in fact very recent. Titan is too expensive however now because of the previous use of hypergolics transitioning to newer and safer fuels as well as refinements in processing and launching that were implementing in the Atlas V.
Long live the Titan.
Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program
by Jay W. Kelley
I have this book. Its heavy on the detail of the missile silo development and the cold war time it was developed.
There was no other missile in the US arsenal that could loft the 9MT warhead it carried. Still to this day it is the heavyweight leader.
Hedley.
While the Titan's might be '50 year old technology' they are much better at launching payloads into space than the much newer shuttles. In fact, there has been a lot of criticism about America's unhealthy focus on reusable vehicles i.e. the shuttles. They are relatively wimpy in the payloads they can lift (they can barely get satellites to geosynchronous orbit and don't go there themselves). So, newer is not necessarily better.
The life of Zefram Cochrane
The current theory, supported by the orbit it was launched into, is that its the 5th in a fleet of radar imaging satillites, known as "LACROSSE".
"No. It's where Zeframe Cochrane WILL launch his first warp ship from. Get your facts straight."
Well, if we're going to argue 'facts', the Titan referred to in First Contact has not been built yet. They very specifically referred to a model that has not been built yet. The main reason for this is that the Titan they used could not get into orbit. So they incremented the number a few times and made implications that there was a nuclear war. The idea there was that one day there would be a Titan developed that could, in theory, get a warp ship into orbit to test drive. (Basically, it was a pre-emptive move to shut up the nitpickers.)
"Derp de derp."