The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1962, the latest event was in 2005
One milestone event (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
NONE
Military and Classified Programs:
2005 – LAUNCH: USA 186, LM Titan TIVB (404), SLC4E, VAFB – Last Titan launch, ending the Titan programs that started in 1957
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1962 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas F, LC11, CCAFS
1964 – LAUNCH (4): Lockheed Polaris A2, SSBN617, ETR – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1977 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident C-4, LC25C, CCAFS
Other:
NONE
The photos today are of the last launch of the Titan program (one official) and three of the photos at the launch that were taken by us (Steve and I) attending that last launch, including a picture of the large crowd in attendance (the crowd watching the launch was in the parking lot of a building across the street from 8401 at VAFB). The vehicle, Titan IVB-26 (404 configuration), launched with a classified payload on a beautiful clear day. The Titan program had 368 launches (including ICBM test launches) with an overall success rate of 87.5%. It was a workhorse for the USAF and launched many important military and classified missions and was on duty as a strategic deterrent with the Titan I and Titan II ICBM programs. Titans were also used to launch the Viking Mars missions, the Voyager 1 & 2 missions, the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn, the astronauts of the Gemini program, and military and NOAA weather satellites. I worked on the Titan program from January, 1981 until shortly after this last launch (I started in A/B Electrical Systems engineering and moved to Mission Success in 1984, continuing in Central Mission Success after Titan until my retirement in November, 2017). A spare Titan IV is on display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio and we viewed that vehicle on a visit in May, 2023 (see last photo). Please feel free to share your experience on that program in a comment!!
Photo credits: Official launch – Found on NASA website, photo courtesy of the 30th Air Force (now Space) Wing. All other photos: Copyright @2023/2024 Steven and Barbara Sande.
