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Last Titan arrives at Cape Canaveral

05/03/02 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. (AFPN) -- The first and second stages of the last Titan IV-B to be launched from Cape Canaveral were rolled off of a C-5 Galaxy aircraft here May 1.

After being unloaded, the stages were placed on large trailer trucks and transported to a facility where the rocket will be assembled. Total preparations will take about six month.

The arrival of these components was an emotional event for members of the launch team.

"It's bittersweet!" said Tech. Sgt. Jeffry Evans, 3rd Space Launch Squadron, a Titan IV rocket maintainer.

Evans said it was sad to see the off-loading because it was the last time he will ever experience the entire process of a new Titan arriving for launch.

"It takes all of us working together to accomplish the entire (United States military) mission," said Capt. Craig Dumas, also of the 3rd SLS and deputy launch crew commander for the Titan flight. "Every piece is just as important as the next, sometimes I hear about pilots using the global positioning or defense support program satellites and I'm proud of what I'm doing to help accomplish the mission."

When the final mission is flown, sometime in 2003, it will carry almost 50 years of Titan history with it. Titan rockets have been tested as ICBMs and used to launch payloads into space from Cape Canaveral since the 1950s.

The first Titan II used for human space flight launched a Gemini capsule carrying Astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom and John Young into a three-orbit mission on March 23, 1965.

In the early 1960s, there was doubt whether the then new Titan III would be needed since NASA was using the new Saturn rocket for heavy lift. Under an agreement signed between NASA and the Department of Defense, the Titan III became an Air Force program.

The integrate-transfer-launch system where the Titan technicians process and ready rockets for launch began construction here in 1963.

Although the Titan III program was run by the Air Force, the service continued to collaborate with NASA. During the middle to late 1970s, NASA used the Titan IIIE to launch the Viking probe to Mars and send Voyager to the outer planets.

There have been several versions of the Titan. The Titan IV-B is the latest and last model. The first Titan IV launch was on June 14, 1989.

The Titan IV is the Air Force's largest space launch vehicle. It is capable of carrying payloads weighing up to 10,000 pounds into synchronous orbit. Once the last Titan IV-B mission is flown, payloads in this weight class will be flown on the new Atlas V or Delta IV space launch vehicles.

This last Titan mission from Cape Canaveral will put a DSP satellite into orbit. The last Titan is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in 2005.