Titan was 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 the Solar System.
Proton is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965. Modern versions of the launch system are still in use as of 2023,making it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight. The components of all Protons are manufactured in the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center factory in Moscow and Chemical Automatics Design Bureau in Voronezh,then transported to the Baikonur Cosmodrome,where they are assembled at Site 91 to form the launch vehicle. Following payload integration,the rocket is then brought to the launch pad horizontally by rail,and raised into vertical position for launch.
The RM-81 Agena was an American rocket upper stage and satellite bus which was developed by Lockheed Corporation initially for the canceled WS-117L reconnaissance satellite program. Following the split-up of WS-117L into SAMOS and Corona for image intelligence,and MIDAS for early warning,the Agena was later used as an upper stage,and an integrated component,for several programs,including Corona reconnaissance satellites and the Agena Target Vehicle used to demonstrate rendezvous and docking during Project Gemini. It was used as an upper stage on the Atlas,Thor,Thorad and Titan IIIB rockets,and considered for others including the Space Shuttle and Atlas V. A total of 365 Agena rockets were launched between February 28,1959 and February 1987. Only 33 Agenas carried NASA payloads and the vast majority were for DoD programs.
BYEMAN codenamed GAMBIT,the KH-7 was a reconnaissance satellite used by the United States from July 1963 to June 1967. Like the older CORONA system,it acquired imagery intelligence by taking photographs and returning the undeveloped film to earth. It achieved a typical ground-resolution of 0.61 m to 0.91 m. Though most of the imagery from the KH-7 satellites was declassified in 2002,details of the satellite program remained classified until 2011.
The SAMOS or SAMOS-E program was a relatively short-lived series of reconnaissance satellites for the United States in the early 1960s,also used as a cover for the initial development of the KH-7 GAMBIT system. Reconnaissance was performed with film cameras and television surveillance from polar low Earth orbits with film canister returns and transmittals over the United States. SAMOS was first launched in 1960 from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
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.
The Titan IIIC was an expendable launch system used by the United States Air Force from 1965 until 1982. It was the first Titan booster to feature large solid rocket motors and was planned to be used as a launcher for the Dyna-Soar,though the spaceplane was cancelled before it could fly. The majority of the launcher's payloads were DoD satellites,for military communications and early warning,though one flight (ATS-6) was performed by NASA. The Titan IIIC was launched exclusively from Cape Canaveral while its sibling,the Titan IIID,was launched only from Vandenberg AFB.
Lockheed Martin Space is one of the four major business divisions of Lockheed Martin. It has its headquarters in Littleton,Colorado,with additional sites in Valley Forge,Pennsylvania;Sunnyvale,California;Santa Cruz,California;Huntsville,Alabama;and elsewhere in the United States and United Kingdom. The division currently employs about 20,000 people,and its most notable products are commercial and military satellites,space probes,missile defense systems,NASA's Orion spacecraft,and the Space Shuttle external tank.
The Atlas-Centaur was a United States expendable launch vehicle derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. The vehicle featured a Centaur upper stage,the first such stage to use high-performance liquid hydrogen as fuel. Launches were conducted from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. After a strenuous flight test program,Atlas-Centaur went on to launch several crucial spaceflight missions for the United States,including Surveyor 1,Mariner 4,and Pioneer 10/11. The vehicle would be continuously developed and improved into the 1990s,with the last direct descendant being the highly successful Atlas II.
Jumpseat,also known as AFP-711 is reportedly a code name for a class of SIGINT reconnaissance satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office for the United States Air Force in the 1970s and 1980s. The program is classified,and much of the information in the open is speculative.
The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets,and was launched 109 times between 1960 and 1978. It was used to launch the first five Mariner uncrewed probes to the planets Venus and Mars,and the Ranger and Lunar Orbiter uncrewed probes to the Moon. The upper stage was also used as an uncrewed orbital target vehicle for the Gemini crewed spacecraft to practice rendezvous and docking. However,the launch vehicle family was originally developed for the Air Force and most of its launches were classified DoD payloads.
Atlas is a family of US missiles and space launch vehicles that originated with the SM-65 Atlas. The Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program was initiated in the late 1950s under the Convair Division of General Dynamics. Atlas was a liquid propellant rocket burning RP-1 kerosene fuel with liquid oxygen in three engines configured in an unusual "stage-and-a-half" or "parallel staging" design:two outboard booster engines were jettisoned along with supporting structures during ascent,while the center sustainer engine,propellant tanks and other structural elements remained connected through propellant depletion and engine shutdown.
Thor was a US space launch vehicle derived from the PGM-17 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile. The Thor rocket was the first member of the Delta rocket family of space launch vehicles. The last launch of a direct derivative of the Thor missile occurred in 2018 as the first stage of the final Delta II.
Discoverer 1 was the first of a series of satellites which were part of the CORONA reconnaissance satellite program. It was launched on a Thor-Agena A rocket on 28 February 1959 at 21:49:16 GMT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was a prototype of the KH-1 satellite,but did not contain either a camera or a film capsule. It was the first satellite launched toward the South Pole in an attempt to achieve a polar orbit,but was unsuccessful. A CIA report,later declassified,concluded that "Today,most people believe the Discoverer 1 landed somewhere near the South Pole".
The Titan 34D was a United States expendable launch vehicle used to launch a number of satellites for military applications.
A balloon tank is a style of propellant tank used in the SM-65 Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and Centaur upper stage that does not use an internal framework,but instead relies on a positive internal pressurization to keep its shape.
Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4) is a launch and landing site at Vandenberg Space Force Base,California,U.S. It has two pads,both of which are used by SpaceX for Falcon 9,one for launch operations,and other as Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) for SpaceX landings.
The Atlas E/F was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket built using parts of decommissioned SM-65 Atlas missiles. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets.
The Atlas SLV-3,or SLV-3 Atlas was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas / SM-65D Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets.
The LR87 was an American liquid-propellant rocket engine used on the first stages of Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles and launch vehicles. Composed of twin motors with separate combustion chambers and turbopump machinery,it is considered a single unit and was never flown as a single combustion chamber engine or designed for this. The LR87 first flew in 1959.
