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 Force Base , California.
130-637: The Titan IV was the last of the Titan family of rockets , originally developed by the Glenn L. Martin Company in 1958. It was retired in 2005 due to their high cost of operation and concerns over its toxic hypergolic propellants , and replaced with the Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles under the EELV program. The final launch (B-30) from Cape Canaveral occurred on 29 April 2005, and
260-709: A Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) weather satellite on 18 October 2003. The Titan III was a modified Titan II with optional solid rocket boosters . It was developed on behalf of the United States Air Force (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
390-605: A Delco Carousel VB IMU and MAGIC 352 Missile Guidance Computer (MGC). The Titan IIIA was a prototype rocket booster and consisted of a standard Titan II rocket with a Transtage upper stage. 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 series of intelligence-gathering satellites. They were all launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, due south over
520-545: A crater 250 feet (76 m) in diameter. 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 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
650-468: A NOSS SIGNIT satellite. Unusually for DoD launches, the Air Force invited civilian press to cover the launch, which became more of a story than intended when the booster exploded 101 seconds after liftoff. Investigation found that one of the two SRMs had burned through, resulting in the destruction of the vehicle in a similar manner as the earlier 34D-9 failure. An investigation found that an improper repair job
780-457: A Soyuz propulsion module, as in Soyuz and Progress , and the descent and orbital modules would have been replaced with a long laboratory module. Following a February 1979 governmental resolution, the programme was consolidated with Vladimir Chelomei 's crewed Almaz military space station programme. The docking ports were reinforced to accommodate 20-tonne (22-short-ton) space station modules based on
910-479: A bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide had formed around their heads. Most of the food eaten by station crews was frozen, refrigerated or canned. Meals were prepared by the cosmonauts, with the help of a dietitian , before their flight to the station. The diet was designed to provide around 100 g of protein , 130 g of fat and 330 g of carbohydrates per day, in addition to appropriate mineral and vitamin supplements. Meals were spaced out through
1040-723: A counterpart to Mir , while the Soviets were planning to construct Mir -2 in the 1990s as a replacement for the station. Because of budget and design constraints, Freedom never progressed past mock-ups and minor component tests and, with the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Space Race , the project was nearly cancelled entirely by the United States House of Representatives . The post-Soviet economic chaos in Russia also led to
1170-637: A family of United States expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. The Titan I and Titan II were part of the US Air Force '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
1300-498: A foul smell, which was often cited as visitors' strongest impression. Researchers in 2018 reported, after detecting the presence on the International Space Station (ISS) of five Enterobacter bugandensis bacterial strains, none pathogenic to humans, that microorganisms on ISS should be carefully monitored to continue ensuring a medically healthy environment for the astronauts. Some biologists were concerned about
1430-581: A further consideration. Lockheed Martin decided to extend its Atlas family of rockets instead of its more expensive Titans, along with participating in joint-ventures to sell launches on the Russian Proton rocket and the new Boeing -built Delta IV 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
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#17328587983401560-414: A good seal. A lever operated a powerful fan and a suction hole slid open: the air stream carried the waste away. Solid waste was collected in individual bags which were stored in an aluminium container. Full containers were transferred to Progress spacecraft for disposal. Liquid waste was evacuated by a hose connected to the front of the toilet, with anatomically appropriate "urine funnel adapters" attached to
1690-481: A greater mass than any previous spacecraft . At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station (ISS) after Mir 's orbit decayed . The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology , human biology , physics , astronomy , meteorology , and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space . Mir
1820-535: A guitar. It commonly housed three crew members, but was capable of supporting as many as six for up to a month. The station was designed to remain in orbit for around five years; it remained in orbit for fifteen. As a result, NASA astronaut John Blaha reported that, with the exception of Priroda and Spektr , which were added late in the station's life, Mir did look used, which is to be expected given it had been lived in for ten to eleven years without being brought home and cleaned. The time zone used on board Mir
1950-521: A half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, or larger crews for short visits. Following the success of the Salyut programme , Mir represented the next stage in the Soviet Union's space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986 and followed by six further modules. Proton rockets were used to launch all of its components except for
2080-450: A hand crank were 14 metres (46 ft) long, meaning that all of the station's modules could be accessed during spacewalks. Each module was fitted with external components specific to the experiments that were carried out within that module, the most obvious being the Travers antenna mounted to Priroda . This synthetic aperture radar consisted of a large dish-like framework mounted outside
2210-618: A hardened underground bunker. Using radar data, it made course corrections during the burn phase. Unlike decommissioned Thor, Atlas, and Titan II missiles, the Titan I inventory was scrapped and never reused for space launches or RV tests, as all support infrastructure for the missile had been converted to the Titan II/III family by 1965. Most of the Titan rockets were the Titan II ICBM and their civilian derivatives for NASA . The Titan II used
2340-468: A location often used for launch into non-polar orbits. 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 90,000 pounds (41,000 kg) of payload. Another used a cryogenic first stage with LOX/LH2 propellants; however the Atlas V EELV was selected for production instead. Most of
2470-424: A medical doctor he observed the effects of stress on his comrades that he believed was the outcome of following an itinerary without making modifications to it. Despite this, he commented that his comrades performed all their tasks in a supremely professional manner. Astronaut Shannon Lucid , who set the record for longest stay in space by a woman while aboard Mir (surpassed by Sunita Williams 11 years later on
2600-605: A modified Centaur G-Prime stage to rendezvous and dock. The plan required upgrading the Space Shuttle and Titan IV to use lighter aluminium-lithium alloy propellant tanks. The plan never came to fruition, but in the 1990s the Shuttle's External Tank was converted to aluminum-lithium tanks to rendezvous with the highly inclined orbit of the Russian Mir Space Station . The IV-A (40nA) used boosters with steel casings,
2730-529: A momentary power dropout to the guidance computer at T+39 seconds. After power was restored, the computer sent a spurious pitch down and yaw to the right command. At T+40 seconds, the Titan was traveling at near supersonic speed and could not handle this action without suffering a structural failure. The sudden pitch downward and resulting aerodynamic stress caused one of the SRMs to separate. The ISDS (Inadvertent Separation Destruct System) automatically triggered, rupturing
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#17328587983402860-626: A new space station, which eventually became the ISS . They also agreed, in preparation for this new project, that the United States would be heavily involved in the Mir programme as part of an international project known as the Shuttle–Mir Programme . The project, sometimes called "Phase One", was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience in long-duration spaceflight and to foster
2990-592: A number of other legacy launch systems. The new EELVs eliminated the use of hypergolic propellants, reduced costs, and were much more versatile than the legacy vehicles. In 2014, the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio , began a project to restore a Titan IV-B rocket. This effort was successful, with the display opening June 8, 2016. The only other surviving Titan IV components are at
3120-470: A shortage of power as a result. The first two arrays, each 38 m (409 ft ) in area, were launched on the core module, and together provided a total of 9 kW of power. A third, dorsal panel was launched on Kvant -1 and mounted on the core module in 1987, providing a further 2 kW from a 22 m (237 ft ) area. Kvant -2, launched in 1989, provided two 10 m (32.8 ft) long panels which supplied 3.5 kW each, whilst Kristall
3250-530: A silo outside Rock, Kansas , 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 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 ,
3380-593: A spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their space agencies , the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos). The project prepared the way for further cooperative space ventures, specifically, "Phase Two" of the joint project, the construction of the ISS. The programme was announced in 1993; the first mission started in 1994, and
3510-570: A structure intended to be used on Mir -2 to hold large parabolic dishes away from the main station structure, was 5 metres long and used as a mounting point for externally mounted exposure experiments. To assist in moving objects around the exterior of the station during EVAs , Mir featured two Strela cargo cranes mounted to the sides of the core module, used for moving spacewalking cosmonauts and parts. The cranes consisted of telescopic poles assembled in sections which measured around 1.8 metres (6 ft) when collapsed, but when extended using
3640-402: A technician dropped an 8 lb (3.6 kg) socket that fell 70 ft (21 m), 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
3770-534: A tethered sleeping bag, a fold-out desk, a porthole, and storage for personal effects. Visiting crews had no allocated sleep module, instead attaching a sleeping bag to an available space on a wall; US astronauts installed themselves within Spektr until a collision with a Progress spacecraft caused the depressurisation of that module. It was important that crew accommodations be well ventilated; otherwise, astronauts could wake up oxygen-deprived and gasping for air, because
3900-482: Is a good countermeasure for the bone and muscle density loss that occurs in low-gravity situations. There were two space toilets (ASUs) on Mir , located in the core module and Kvant -2 . They used a fan-driven suction system similar to the Space Shuttle Waste Collection System. The user is first fastened to the toilet seat, which was equipped with spring-loaded restraining bars to ensure
4030-622: Is needed. This allowed the launcher to be stored in a ready state for extended periods, but both propellants are extremely toxic. The 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. Launches to polar orbits occurred from Vandenberg, with most other launches taking place at Cape Canaveral. Titan IV-A flew with steel-cased solid UA1207 rocket motors (SRMs) produced by Chemical Systems Division. The Titan IV-B evolved from
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4160-607: The Buran programme in order to prepare the Buran spacecraft for flight testing. Funding resumed in early 1984 when Valentin Glushko was ordered by the Central Committee 's Secretary for Space and Defence to orbit Mir by early 1986, in time for the 27th Communist Party Congress . It was clear that the planned processing flow could not be followed and still meet the 1986 launch date. It
4290-693: 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 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
4420-566: The LR-87-5 engine, a modified version of the LR-87 , that used a hypergolic propellant combination of nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) for its oxidizer and Aerozine 50 (a 50/50 mix of hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (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 . It used an inertial measurement unit made by AC Spark Plug derived from original designs from
4550-553: The RKA Mission Control Centre (TsUP). Radio links were also used during rendezvous and docking procedures and for audio and video communication between crew members, flight controllers and family members. As a result, Mir was equipped with several communication systems used for different purposes. The station communicated directly with the ground via the Lira antenna mounted to the core module . The Lira antenna also had
4680-518: The Salyut DOS-17K space stations. Four Salyut space stations had been launched since 1971, with three more being launched during Mir' s development. It was planned that the station's core module ( DOS-7 and the backup DOS-8 ) would be equipped with a total of four docking ports; two at either end of the station as with the Salyut stations, and an additional two ports on either side of a docking sphere at
4810-766: The TKS spacecraft . NPO Energia was responsible for the overall space station, with work subcontracted to KB Salyut , due to ongoing work on the Energia rocket and Salyut 7 , Soyuz-T , and Progress spacecraft . KB Salyut began work in 1979, and drawings were released in 1982 and 1983. New systems incorporated into the station included the Salyut 5B digital flight control computer and gyrodyne flywheels (taken from Almaz), Kurs automatic rendezvous system , Luch satellite communications system, Elektron oxygen generators, and Vozdukh carbon dioxide scrubbers . By early 1984, work on Mir had halted while all resources were being put into
4940-717: 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 experienced four catastrophic launch failures. On August 2, 1993, Titan IV K-11 lifted from SLC-4E carrying
5070-401: The docking module in 1995, followed different procedures. Kvant -1, having, unlike the four modules mentioned above, no engines of its own, was launched attached to a tug based on the TKS spacecraft which delivered the module to the aft end of the core module instead of the docking node. Once hard docking had been achieved, the tug undocked and deorbited itself. The docking module, meanwhile,
5200-517: The docking module , which was installed by US Space Shuttle mission STS-74 in 1995. When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components. Power was provided by several photovoltaic arrays attached directly to the modules. The station was maintained at an orbit between 296 km (184 mi) and 421 km (262 mi) altitude and travelled at an average speed of 27,700 km/h (17,200 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day. The station
5330-465: The nickel-cadmium storage batteries installed throughout the station. The arrays rotated in only one degree of freedom over a 180° arc, and tracked the Sun using Sun sensors and motors installed in the array mounts. The station itself also had to be oriented to ensure optimum illumination of the arrays. When the station's all-sky sensor detected that Mir had entered Earth's shadow, the arrays were rotated to
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5460-426: The skeleton , or spaceflight osteopenia . Other significant effects include fluid redistribution, a slowing of the cardiovascular system , decreased production of red blood cells , balance disorders, and a weakening of the immune system . Lesser symptoms include loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, excess flatulence , and puffiness of the face. These effects begin to reverse quickly upon return to
5590-426: The Air Force had put extreme pressure on launch crews to meet program deadlines. The Titan's fuselage was filled with numerous sharp metal protrusions that made it nearly impossible to install, adjust, or remove wiring without it getting damaged. Quality control at Lockheed's Denver plant, where Titan vehicles were assembled, was described as "awful". The proximal cause of the failure was an electrical short that caused
5720-564: The Air Force. The Titan IV could be launched with no upper stage , the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), or the Centaur upper stage . The Titan IV was made up of two large solid-fuel rocket boosters and a two-stage liquid-fueled core. The two storable liquid fuel core stages used Aerozine 50 fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. These propellants are hypergolic , igniting on contact, and are liquids at room temperature, so no tank insulation
5850-465: The Earth. To prevent some of these effects, the station was equipped with two treadmills (in the core module and Kvant -2) and a stationary bicycle (in the core module); each cosmonaut was to cycle the equivalent of 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) and run the equivalent of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) per day. Cosmonauts used bungee cords to strap themselves to the treadmill. Researchers believe that exercise
5980-564: The ISS), also commented about working aboard Mir : "I think going to work on a daily basis on Mir is very similar to going to work on a daily basis on an outstation in Antarctica. The big difference with going to work here is the isolation, because you really are isolated. You don't have a lot of support from the ground. You really are on your own." The most significant adverse effects of long-term weightlessness are muscle atrophy and deterioration of
6110-466: The ISS. The atmosphere on Mir was similar to Earth's . Normal air pressure on the station was 101.3 kPa (14.7 psi ); the same as at sea level on Earth. An Earth-like atmosphere offers benefits for crew comfort. Interkosmos ( Russian : ИнтерКосмос ) was a Soviet Union space exploration programme which allowed members from countries allied with the Soviet Union to participate in crewed and uncrewed space exploration missions. Participation
6240-608: The IV-B (40nB) used boosters with composite casings (the SRMU). Type 401 used a Centaur 3rd stage, type 402 used an IUS 3rd stage. The other 3 types (without 3rd stages) were 403, 404, and 405: The Titan rocket family was established in October 1955 when the Air Force awarded the Glenn L. Martin Company (later Martin-Marietta , now part of Lockheed Martin ) a contract to build an intercontinental ballistic missile ( SM-68 ). The resulting Titan I
6370-608: The Pacific into polar orbits . Their maximum payload mass was about 7,500 lb (3,000 kg). 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. The Titan IIID
6500-498: The RCS fuel was depleted, causing the upper stage and payload to rotate rapidly. On restart, the Centaur cartwheeled out of control and left its payload in a useless orbit. This failure was found to be the result of an incorrectly programmed equation in the guidance computer. The error caused the roll rate gyro data to be ignored by the flight computer. Titan (rocket family) Titan was
6630-557: The SRM and taking the rest of the launch vehicle with it. At T+45 seconds, the Range Safety Officer sent the destruct command to ensure any remaining large pieces of the booster were broken up. An extensive recovery effort was launched, both to diagnose the cause of the accident and recover debris from the classified satellite. All of the debris from the Titan had impacted offshore, between three and five miles downrange, and at least 30% of
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#17328587983406760-681: The Solar System. 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 was delayed. It was a two-stage rocket operational from early 1962 to mid-1965 whose LR-87 booster engine was powered by RP-1 (kerosene) and liquid oxygen (LOX). The ground guidance for the Titan was the UNIVAC ATHENA computer , designed by Seymour Cray , based in
6890-551: The Space Shuttle, in order to receive commands from the TsUP and Mir crew members via the TORU system. At Mir' s orbital altitude, the force of Earth's gravity was 88% of sea level gravity. While the constant free fall of the station offered a perceived sensation of weightlessness , the onboard environment was not one of weightlessness or zero gravity. The environment was often described as microgravity . This state of perceived weightlessness
7020-474: 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. Liquid oxygen is dangerous to use in an enclosed space, such as a missile silo , and cannot be stored for long periods in the booster oxidizer tank. Several Atlas and Titan I rockets exploded and destroyed their silos, although without loss of life. The Martin Company
7150-484: The Titan III family and was similar to the Titan 34D. While the launcher family had an extremely good reliability record in its first two decades, this changed in the 1980s with the loss of a Titan 34D in 1985 followed by the disastrous explosion of another in 1986 due to a SRM failure. Due to this, the Titan IV-B vehicle was intended to use the new composite-casing Upgraded Solid Rocket Motors. Due to development problems
7280-674: The Titan IIIA, eventually followed by the Titan IV-A and IV-B. By the mid-1980s the United States government worried that the Space Shuttle, designed to launch all American payloads and replace all unmanned rockets, would not be reliable enough for military and classified missions. In 1984 Under Secretary of the Air Force and Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Pete Aldridge decided to purchase Complementary Expendable Launch Vehicles (CELV) for ten NRO payloads;
7410-566: The Titan program as "a nightmare". The 1998-99 schedule had called for four launches in less than 12 months. The first of these was Titan K-25 which successfully orbited an Orion SIGNIT satellite on May 9, 1998. The second was the K-17 failure, and the third was the K-32 failure. After a delay caused by the investigation of the previous failure, the 9 April 1999 launch of K-32 carried a DSP early warning satellite . The IUS second stage failed to separate, leaving
7540-617: The USA-186 optical imaging satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. Mir Mir ( Russian : Мир , IPA: [ˈmʲir] ; lit. ' peace ' or ' world ' ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russian Federation . Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. It had
7670-645: The United States Department of Defense (DOD). 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. The Titan IIIM
7800-440: The United States of America and the Russian Federation Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes called for a short joint space programme with one American astronaut deployed to the Russian space station Mir and two Russian cosmonauts deployed to a Space Shuttle. In September 1993, US Vice President Al Gore Jr. , and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin announced plans for
7930-552: The United States. 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. Starting in the late 1980s, some of the deactivated Titan IIs were converted into space launch vehicles to be used for launching U.S. Government payloads. Titan 23G rockets consisted of two stages burning liquid propellant . The first stage
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#17328587983408060-413: The VDU (Vynosnaya Dvigatyelnaya Ustanovka), was mounted on the end of Sofora and was used to augment the roll-control thrusters on the core module. The VDU's increased distance from Mir' s axis allowed an 85% decrease in fuel consumption, reducing the amount of propellant required to orient the station. A second girder, Rapana , was mounted aft of Sofora on Kvant -1. This girder, a small prototype of
8190-456: The booster was recovered from the sea floor. Debris continued to wash ashore for days afterward, and the salvage operation continued until October 15. The Air Force had pushed for a "launch on demand" program for DOD payloads, something that was almost impossible to pull off especially given the lengthy preparation and processing time needed for a Titan IV launch (at least 60 days). Shortly before retiring in 1994, General Chuck Horner referred to
8320-498: The cancellation of Mir -2, though only after its base block, DOS-8 , had been constructed. Similar budgetary difficulties were faced by other nations with space station projects, which prompted the US government to negotiate with European states, Russia, Japan, and Canada in the early 1990s to begin a collaborative project. In June 1992, American president George H. W. Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin agreed to cooperate on space exploration . The resulting Agreement between
8450-410: The capability to use the Luch data relay satellite system (which fell into disrepair in the 1990s) and the network of Soviet tracking ships deployed in various locations around the world (which also became unavailable in the 1990s). UHF radio was used by cosmonauts conducting EVAs . UHF was also employed by other spacecraft that docked to or undocked from the station, such as Soyuz, Progress, and
8580-421: The core module. Crews were also provided with rinse-less shampoo and edible toothpaste to save water. On a 1998 visit to Mir , bacteria and larger organisms were found to have proliferated in water globules formed from moisture that had condensed behind service panels. The station provided two permanent crew quarters, the Kayutkas , phonebox-sized booths set towards the rear of the core module, each featuring
8710-417: The crews began preparing for their evening meal at about 19:00. The cosmonauts were free to do as they wished in the evening, and largely worked to their own pace during the day. In their spare time, crews were able to catch up with work, observe the Earth below, respond to letters, drawings, and other items brought from Earth (and give them an official stamp to show they had been aboard Mir ), or make use of
8840-404: The day to aid assimilation. Canned food such as jellied beef tongue was placed into a niche in the core module's table, where it could be warmed in 5–10 minutes. Usually, crews drank tea, coffee and fruit juices, but, unlike the ISS, the station also had a supply of cognac and vodka for special occasions. In the 1990s ninety species of micro-organisms were found inside Mir , four years after
8970-409: 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
9100-547: The detailed itineraries provided by ground control. Every second on board was accounted for and all activities were timetabled. After working some time on Mir , Linenger came to feel that the order in which his activities were allocated did not represent the most logical or efficient order possible for these activities. He decided to perform his tasks in an order that he felt enabled him to work more efficiently, be less fatigued, and suffer less from stress. Linenger noted that his comrades on Mir did not "improvise" in this way, and as
9230-553: The end, it had been visited by 104 different people from twelve different nations , making it the most visited spacecraft in history (a record later surpassed by the ISS ). Due to pressure to launch the station on schedule, mission planners were left without Soyuz spacecraft or modules to launch to the station at first. It was decided to launch Soyuz T-15 on a dual mission to both Mir and Salyut 7 . Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov first docked with Mir on 15 March 1986. During their nearly 51-day stay on Mir , they brought
9360-683: The final launch from Vandenberg AFB occurred on 19 October 2005. Lockheed Martin Space Systems built the Titan IVs near Denver, Colorado, under contract to the US government . 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 . The Titan IV was developed to provide assured capability to launch Space Shuttle –class payloads for
9490-528: The first few Titan IV-B launches flew with the old-style UA1207 SRMs. In 1988–89, The Ralph M. Parsons Company designed and built a full-scale steel tower and deflector facility, which was used to test the Titan IV Solid Rocket Motor Upgrade (SRMU). The launch and the effect of the SRMU thrust force on the Titan IV vehicle were modeled. To evaluate the magnitude of the thrust force, the SRMU
9620-452: The front of the station to enable further modules to expand the station's capabilities. By August 1978, this had evolved to the final configuration of one aft port and five ports in a spherical compartment at the forward end of the station. It was originally planned that the ports would connect to 7.5-tonne (8.3-short-ton) modules derived from the Soyuz spacecraft . These modules would have used
9750-534: The internal disintegration of the Soviet Union . 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 in Florida,
9880-491: The minimisation of movement on board the station, and so Mir would be oriented in a gravity gradient attitude for stability. Prior to the arrival of the modules containing these gyrodynes, the station's attitude was controlled using thrusters located on the core module alone, and, in an emergency, the thrusters on docked Soyuz spacecraft could be used to maintain the station's orientation. Radio communications provided telemetry and scientific data links between Mir and
10010-403: The module, with associated equipment within, used for Earth observations experiments, as was most of the other equipment on Priroda , including various radiometers and scan platforms. Kvant -2 also featured several scan platforms and was fitted with a mounting bracket to which the cosmonaut manoeuvring unit , or Ikar , was mated. This backpack was designed to assist cosmonauts in moving around
10140-601: The modules, and the VDU thruster used for roll control mounted to the Sofora girder) were used to attain the new attitude and the CMGs were reengaged. This was done fairly regularly depending on experimental needs; for instance, Earth or astronomical observations required that the instrument recording images be continuously aimed at the target, and so the station was oriented to make this possible. Conversely, materials processing experiments required
10270-497: 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
10400-751: The mutant fungi being a major microbiological hazard for humans, and reaching Earth in the splashdown, after having been in an isolated environment for 15 years. Mir was visited by a total of 28 long-duration or "principal" crews, each of which was given a sequential expedition number formatted as EO-X. Expeditions varied in length (from the 72-day flight of the crew of EO-28 to the 437-day flight of Valeri Polyakov ), but generally lasted around six months. Principal expedition crews consisted of two or three crew members, who often launched as part of one expedition but returned with another (Polyakov launched with EO-14 and landed with EO-17). The principal expeditions were often supplemented with visiting crews who remained on
10530-457: The name came from the government's expectation that the rockets would "complement" the shuttle. Later renamed Titan IV, the rocket would only carry three military payloads paired with Centaur stages and fly exclusively from LC-41 at Cape Canaveral. However, the Challenger accident in 1986 caused a renewed dependence on expendable launch systems , with the Titan IV program significantly expanded. At
10660-421: The optimum angle predicted for reacquiring the Sun once the station passed out of the shadow. The batteries, each of 60 Ah capacity, were then used to power the station until the arrays recovered their maximum output on the day side of Earth. The solar arrays themselves were launched and installed over a period of eleven years, more slowly than originally planned, with the station continually suffering from
10790-478: The payload in a useless orbit. Investigation into this failure found that wiring harnesses in the IUS had been wrapped too tightly with electrical tape so that a plug failed to disconnect properly and prevented the two IUS stages from separating. The fourth launch was K-26 on April 30, 1999, carrying a Milstar communications satellite. During the Centaur coast phase flight, the roll control thrusters fired open-loop until
10920-410: The problem was being attended to at around 3 a.m., leaking rocket fuel ignited and blew the 8,000 lb (3,630 kg) 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 200 ft (60 m) into the air and left
11050-452: The project continued until its scheduled completion in 1998. Eleven Space Shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight, and almost 1000 cumulative days in space for US astronauts occurred over the course of seven long-duration expeditions. Inside, the 130-tonne (140-short-ton) Mir resembled a cramped labyrinth , crowded with hoses, cables and scientific instruments—as well as articles of everyday life, such as photos, children's drawings, books and
11180-434: The propellant block. However, most of CSD's qualified personnel had left the program by this point and so the repair crew in question did not know the proper procedure. After replacement, they neglected to seal the area where the cut in the propellant block had been made. Post repair X-rays were enough for CC personnel to disqualify the SRMs from flight, but the SRMs were then shipped to Vandenberg and approved anyway. The result
11310-411: The radial port where it was to mate, before lowering it to dock. The node was equipped with only two Konus drogues, which were required for dockings. This meant that, prior to the arrival of each new module, the node would have to be depressurised to allow spacewalking cosmonauts to manually relocate the drogue to the next port to be occupied. The other two expansion modules, Kvant -1 in 1987 and
11440-413: The same sequence to be added to the main Mir complex. Firstly, the module would be launched independently on its own Proton-K and chase the station automatically. It would then dock to the forward docking port on the core module's docking node, then extend its Lyappa arm to mate with a fixture on the node's exterior. The arm would then lift the module away from the forward docking port and rotate it on to
11570-418: The second generation stations Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 comprised a monolithic station with two ports to allow consumables to be replenished by cargo spacecraft such as Progress . The capability of Mir to be expanded with add-on modules meant that each could be designed with a specific purpose in mind (for instance, the core module functioned largely as living quarters), thus eliminating the need to install all
11700-547: The sink, toilet, and condensation from the air. The Elektron system generated oxygen electrolytically , venting hydrogen to space. Bottled oxygen and solid fuel oxygen generation (SFOG) canisters, a system known as Vika , provided backup. Carbon dioxide was removed from the air by the Vozdukh system. Other byproducts of human metabolism, such as methane from the intestines and ammonia from sweat, were removed by activated charcoal filters. Similar systems are presently used on
11830-405: The spacecraft was sent into Saturn's atmosphere to burn up. While an improvement over the shuttle, the Titan IV was expensive and unreliable. By the 1990s, there were also growing safety concerns over its toxic propellants. The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program resulted in the development of the Atlas V , Delta IV , and Delta IV Heavy launch vehicles, which replaced Titan IV and
11960-534: The station and the planned Buran in a manner similar to the US Manned Maneuvering Unit , but it was only used once, during EO-5 . In addition to module-specific equipment, Kvant -2, Kristall , Spektr and Priroda were each equipped with one Lyappa arm , a robotic arm which, after the module had docked to the core module's forward port, grappled one of two fixtures positioned on the core module's docking node. The arriving module's docking probe
12090-453: The station by cosmonauts conducting a total of eighty spacewalks over the course of the station's history. The station's assembly marked the beginning of the third generation of space station design, being the first to consist of more than one primary spacecraft (thus opening a new era in space architecture ). First generation stations such as Salyut 1 and Skylab had monolithic designs, consisting of one module with no resupply capability;
12220-476: The station constantly lost altitude because of slight atmospheric drag , it needed to be boosted to a higher altitude several times each year. This boost was generally performed by Progress resupply vessels, although during the Shuttle- Mir programme the task was performed by US Space Shuttles, and, prior to the arrival of Kvant-1 , the engines on the core module could also accomplish the task. Attitude control
12350-476: The station during the week-long handover period between one crew and the next before returning with the departing crew, the station's life support system being able to support a crew of up to six for short periods. The station was occupied for a total of four distinct periods; 12 March–16 July 1986 ( EO-1 ), 5 February 1987 – 27 April 1989 (EO-2–EO-4), the record-breaking run from 5 September 1989 – 28 August 1999 (EO-5–EO-27), and 4 April–16 June 2000 ( EO-28 ). By
12480-563: The station's equipment in one module. In its completed configuration, the space station consisted of seven different modules, each launched into orbit separately over a period of ten years by either Proton-K rockets or Space Shuttle Atlantis . In addition to the pressurised modules, Mir featured several external components. The largest component was the Sofora girder, a large scaffolding-like structure consisting of 20 segments which, when assembled, projected 14 metres from its mount on Kvant -1. A self-contained thruster block,
12610-399: The station's ham radio. Two amateur radio call signs, U1MIR and U2MIR, were assigned to Mir in the late 1980s , allowing amateur radio operators on Earth to communicate with the cosmonauts. The station was also equipped with a supply of books and films for the crew to read and watch. NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger related how life on board Mir was structured and lived according to
12740-410: The station's launch. By the time of its decommission in 2001, the number of known different micro-organisms had grown to 140. As space stations get older, the problems with contamination get worse. Molds that develop aboard space stations can produce acids that degrade metal, glass and rubber. The molds in Mir were found growing behind panels and inside air-conditioning equipment. The molds also caused
12870-571: The time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the largest and most capable expendable launch vehicle used by the USAF. The post-Challenger program added Titan IV versions with the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) or no upper stages, increased the number of flights, and converted LC-40 at the Cape for Titan IV launches. As of 1991, almost forty total Titan IV launches were scheduled and a new, improved SRM ( solid rocket motor ) casing using lightweight composite materials
13000-424: The time required to set up, use, and stow. The shower, which featured a plastic curtain and fan to collect water via an airflow, was later converted into a steam room; it eventually had its plumbing removed and the space was reused. When the shower was unavailable, crew members washed using wet wipes, with soap dispensed from a toothpaste tube-like container, or using a washbasin equipped with a plastic hood, located in
13130-625: The tube so both men and women could use the same toilet. Waste was collected and transferred to the Water Recovery System, where it could be recycled back into drinking water, but was usually used to produce oxygen via the Elektron system. Mir featured a shower, the Bania , located in Kvant -2. It was an improvement on the units installed in previous Salyut stations, but proved difficult to use due to
13260-582: The two Viking missions to place two orbiters around Mars and two instrumented landers on its surface. 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 Transfer Orbit Stage , and the Transtage . The Titan 34D made its maiden flight in the year of 1982 on the 30th of October with two DSCS defense communications satellites for
13390-652: 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. 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
13520-474: Was Aerozine 50 , a 50/50 mix of hydrazine and UDMH, and the oxidizer was NTO. 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
13650-471: Was Moscow Time (MSK; UTC+03 ). The windows were covered during night hours to give the impression of darkness because the station experienced 16 sunrises and sunsets a day. A typical day for the crew began with a wake-up at 08:00 MSK, followed by two hours of personal hygiene and breakfast. Work was conducted from 10:00 until 13:00, followed by an hour of exercise and an hour's lunch break. Three more hours of work and another hour of exercise followed lunch, and
13780-493: Was a near-repeat of 34D-9; a gap was left between the propellant and SRM casing and another burn-through occurred during launch. 1998 saw the failure of Titan K-17 with a Navy ELINT Mercury (satellite) from Cape Canaveral around 40 seconds into the flight. K-17 was several years old and the last Titan IV-A to be launched. The post-accident investigation showed that the booster had dozens of damaged or chafed wires and should never have been launched in that operating condition, but
13910-431: 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
14040-405: Was also made available to governments of countries such as France and India. Only the last three of the programme's fourteen missions consisted of an expedition to Mir but none resulted in an extended stay in the station: Various European astronauts visited Mir as part of several cooperative programmes: In the early 1980s, NASA planned to launch a modular space station called Freedom as
14170-686: Was connected to the socket that had previously been occupied by the core module's dorsal panel, which was by this point barely supplying 1 kW. The other panel, originally intended to be launched on Priroda , replaced the Kristall panel on Kvant -1 in November 1997, completing the station's electrical system. Mir was maintained in a near circular orbit with an average perigee of 354 km (220 mi) and an average apogee of 374 km (232 mi), travelling at an average speed of 27,700 km/h (17,200 mph) and completing 15.7 orbits per day. As
14300-434: Was connected to the steel tower through load measurement systems and launched in-place. It was the first full-scale test conducted to simulate the effects of the SRMU on the Titan IV vehicle. In the early 1980s, General Dynamics developed a plan to assemble a lunar landing spacecraft in-orbit under the name Early Lunar Access . A Space Shuttle would lift a lunar lander into orbit and then a Titan IV rocket would launch with
14430-542: Was decided on Cosmonaut's Day (12 April) 1985 to ship the flight model of the base block to the Baikonur Cosmodrome and conduct the systems testing and integration there. The module arrived at the launch site on 6 May, with 1100 of 2500 cables requiring rework based on the results of tests to the ground test model at Khrunichev . In October, the base block was rolled outside its cleanroom to carry out communications tests. The first launch attempt on 16 February 1986
14560-610: 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 . 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 Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), or no upper stage at all. This rocket
14690-631: Was introduced. 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$ 18.3 billion (inflation-adjusted US$ 42.7 billion in 2024). In October 1997, a Titan IV-B rocket launched Cassini–Huygens , a pair of probes sent to Saturn . It was the only use of a Titan IV for a non-Department of Defense launch. Huygens landed on Titan on January 14, 2005. Cassini remained in orbit around Saturn. The Cassini Mission ended on September 15, 2017, when
14820-407: Was launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis during STS-74 and mated to the orbiter's Orbiter Docking System . Atlantis then docked, via the module, to Kristall , then left the module behind when it undocked later in the mission. Various other external components, including three truss structures, several experiments and other unpressurised elements were also mounted to the exterior of
14950-509: Was launched as part of the Soviet Union's crewed spaceflight programme effort to maintain a long-term research outpost in space, and following the collapse of the USSR, was operated by the new Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA). As a result, most of the station's occupants were Soviet; through international collaborations such as the Interkosmos , Euromir and Shuttle– Mir programmes, the station
15080-571: Was launched with two collapsible, 15 m (49.2 ft) long arrays (providing 4 kW each) which were intended to be moved to Kvant -1 and installed on mounts which were attached during a spacewalk by the EO-8 crew in 1991. This relocation was begun in 1995, when the panels were retracted and the left panel installed on Kvant -1. By this time all the arrays had degraded and were supplying much less power. To rectify this, Spektr (launched in 1995), which had initially been designed to carry two arrays,
15210-439: Was made accessible to space travellers from several Asian, European and North American nations. Mir was deorbited in March 2001 after funding was cut off. The cost of the Mir programme was estimated by former RKA General Director Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $ 4.2 billion over its lifetime (including development, assembly and orbital operation). Mir was authorised by a 17 February 1976 decree, to design an improved model of
15340-465: Was maintained by a combination of two mechanisms; in order to hold a set attitude, a system of twelve control moment gyroscopes (CMGs, or "gyrodynes") rotating at 10,000 rpm kept the station oriented, six CMGs being located in each of the Kvant-1 and Kvant-2 modules. When the attitude of the station needed to be changed, the gyrodynes were disengaged, thrusters (including those mounted directly to
15470-500: Was modified to hold four, providing a total of 126 m (1360 ft ) of array with a 16 kW supply. Two further arrays were flown to the station on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis during STS-74 , carried on the docking module. The first of these, the Mir cooperative solar array, consisted of American photovoltaic cells mounted on a Russian frame. It was installed on the unoccupied mount on Kvant -1 in May 1996 and
15600-422: 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: The Titan III family used the same basic LR-87 engines as Titan II (with performance enhancements over
15730-485: Was not perfect, being disturbed by five separate effects: Mir 's environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) provided or controlled atmospheric pressure , fire detection, oxygen levels, waste management and water supply. The highest priority for the ECLSS was the station's atmosphere, but the system also collected, processed, and stored waste and water produced and used by the crew—a process that recycles fluid from
15860-511: Was powered by one Aerojet LR87 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 starting in 1988. The final such vehicle launched
15990-469: Was scrubbed when the spacecraft communications failed, but the second launch attempt, on 19 February 1986 at 21:28:23 UTC, was successful, meeting the political deadline. The orbital assembly of Mir began on 19 February 1986 with the launch of the Proton-K rocket. Four of the six modules which were later added ( Kvant -2 in 1989, Kristall in 1990, Spektr in 1995 and Priroda in 1996) followed
16120-535: 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 orbits . 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
16250-407: Was the cause of the accident. After Titan 34D-9, extensive measures had been put in place to ensure proper SRM operating condition, including X-raying the motor segments during prelaunch checks. The SRMs that went onto K-11 had originally been shipped to Cape Canaveral, where X-rays revealed anomalies in the solid propellant mixture in one segment. The defective area was removed by a pie-shaped cut in
16380-414: Was the first continuously inhabited long-term research station in orbit and held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at 3,644 days, until it was surpassed by the ISS on 23 October 2010. It holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and
16510-437: Was the largest missile developed for the USAF at that time. The Titan 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 II to be stored underground ready to launch. Titan II was the first Titan vehicle to be used as a space launcher. Development of the space launch only Titan III began in 1964, resulting in
16640-508: Was the nation's first two-stage ICBM and complemented the Atlas ICBM as the second underground, vertically stored, silo-based ICBM. Both stages of the Titan I used liquid oxygen and RP-1 as propellants. A subsequent version of the Titan family, the Titan II , was a two-stage evolution of the Titan I, but was much more powerful and used different propellants. Designated as LGM-25C, the Titan II
16770-421: Was then retracted, and the arm raised the module so that it could be pivoted 90° for docking to one of the four radial docking ports. Photovoltaic (PV) arrays powered Mir . The station used a 28 volt DC supply which provided 5-, 10-, 20- and 50- amp taps. When the station was illuminated by sunlight, several solar arrays mounted on the pressurised modules provided power to Mir' s systems and charged
16900-531: 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 (NRO). When it was being produced, the Titan IV was
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