Preparing for Titan's final flight

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Warren Comer
  • 45th Space Wing Public Affairs
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. (AFPN) --  The last Titan IVB rocket to be launched here arrived from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Oct. 5 while another Titan IVB was moved to Space Launch Complex 40 to launch an early warning satellite under the Defense Support Program.

There are just three Titan IVB launches remaining before the rocket is phased out in 2004.

The group of airmen here who manage the massive rockets know these rockets have supported a space mission that has contributed to the overwhelming successes of operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Titan IVB is a heavy-lift space launch vehicle weighing more than 2 million pounds, used to carry government payloads such as DSP, Milstar and National Reconnaissance Office satellites into space.

"After the (space shuttle) Challenger incident in 1986, the Titan IV really brought the space program through a tough period," said Tech. Sgt. Brian Ellis, 3rd Space Launch Squadron booster maintenance controller.

The Titan IV, developed before the Air Force's evolved expendable launch vehicle program, is capable of launching space shuttle-class payloads. The vehicle is flexible, in that it can be launched with no upper stage, or one of two optional upper stages for greater and varied carrying ability.

Most who watch launches do not think of the enormous effort it takes to get a rocket the size of a Titan IVB ready for launch. It takes airmen and Lockheed Martin employees more than 150 days just to prepare the rocket for operation.

"We first place the stages of a Titan IVB into the Vertical Integration Building," Nelson said. "We then place it in a vertical position and prepare it to be moved through other processing functions for final move to the launch pad."