17 Facts About 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.

Titan IV was the last of the Titan family of rockets, originally developed by the Glenn L Martin Company in 1958.

Two Titan IV vehicles are currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio and the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

Titan IV was developed to provide assured capability to launch Space Shuttle–class payloads for the Air Force.

The Titan IV could be launched with no upper stage, the Inertial Upper Stage, or the Centaur upper stage.

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Titan IV was made up of two large solid-fuel rocket boosters and a two-stage liquid-fueled core.

Titan IV could be launched from either coast: SLC-40 or 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station near Cocoa Beach, Florida and at SLC-4E, at Vandenberg Air Force Base launch sites 55 miles northwest of Santa Barbara California.

Titan IV-A flew with steel-cased solid UA1207 rocket motors produced by Chemical Systems Division.

Titan IV-B evolved from the Titan III family and was similar to the Titan 34D.

The resulting Titan IV I was the nation's first two-stage ICBM and complemented the Atlas ICBM as the second underground, vertically stored, silo-based ICBM.

The Titan IV II had newly developed engines which used Aerozine 50 and nitrogen tetroxide as fuel and oxidizer in a self-igniting, hypergolic propellant combination, allowing the Titan IV II to be stored underground ready to launch.

Titan IV II was the first Titan IV vehicle to be used as a space launcher.

At the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the largest and most capable expendable launch vehicle used by the USAF.

In 1990, the Titan IV Selected Acquisition Report estimated the total cost for the acquisition of 65 Titan IV vehicles over a period of 16 years to US$18.

The only other surviving Titan IV components are at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado which has two Titan Stage 1 engines, one Titan Stage 2 engine, and the interstage 'skirt' on outdoor display; and at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, including the core stages and parts of the solid rocket motor assembly.

The Titan IV's fuselage was filled with numerous sharp metal protrusions that made it nearly impossible to install, adjust, or remove wiring without it getting damaged.

At T+40 seconds, the Titan IV was traveling at near supersonic speed and could not handle this action without suffering a structural failure.