NASASpaceFlight.com Forum
General Discussion => Historical Spaceflight => Topic started by: kevin-rf on 08/23/2006 01:52 pm
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Titan rocket era nears end
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_4223682
Second to last Titan IV-B SRB fired as part of program shut down.
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kevin-rf - 23/8/2006 8:39 AM
Titan rocket era nears end
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_4223682
Second to last Titan IV-B SRB fired as part of program shut down.
My read of this was that it was a motor segment, not a complete SRMU. There appear to have been several "backup" SRMU segments left at the end of the program.
It does make me wonder, though, if a complete extra Titan IV might have existed at the end of the program. Original funding called for 40 vehicles, as I recall, but only 39 flew.
- Ed Kyle
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DSP on D-IV Heavy. No IUS available (AXAF used it) I am thinking out loud. Not official info
B-37 not flown
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Jim - 23/8/2006 9:46 AM
DSP on D-IV Heavy. No IUS available (AXAF used it) I am thinking out loud. Not official info
B-37 not flown
Any idea where this thing would be stored at present? Any idea if it would end up in a museum, or scrap, etc.?
- Ed Kyle
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I thought the Titan SRMU was a single cast, not a shuttle like segmented design.
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kevin-rf - 23/8/2006 9:52 AM
I thought the Titan SRMU was a single cast, not a shuttle like segmented design.
The SRMU is actually a 3-segment motor, and the shuttle SRM actually was based on the original Titan SRM joint design.
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kevin-rf - 23/8/2006 11:52 AM
I thought the Titan SRMU was a single cast, not a shuttle like segmented design.
3 segments
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And Atlas 5 has the largest-ever single segment SRB; that which is much smaller than Titans ever had.
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Parts of B-37 were in Waterton, Co on Aug 12 for LM (launch vehicle) 50th Anniversary
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kevin-rf - 23/8/2006 8:39 AM
Titan rocket era nears end
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_4223682
Second to last Titan IV-B SRB fired as part of program shut down.
That's sad.
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Yes, a complete Titan IVB existed at the end of the Titan program (the 40th Titan). However, it could only support a Titan/IUS configuration for DSP-23 or a Titan IV/NUS configuration. Other missions that needed a Titan Centaur upper stage needed significant hardware - there was not a spare Centaur, just spare propellant tanks. And the payload fairing would need additional sections for missions requiring an 86 foot long fairing. The Air Force did move the spare Titan to Vandenberg AFB as a potential spare for the Titan IV that flew in Oct 2005, ending the program. Where it goes next, I don't know.
There was also a spare IUS (IUS-23) as well as parts for IUS-28. The Air Force program office kept IUS-23 as a hot spare up until the last IUS launch in Feb 2004 carrying DSP-22. It was insurance in case IUS-10 had to be replaced. Since then the SRM-1 and SRM-2 motors that remained have been disposed of, last I heard.
The Air Force stopped carrying the option to use the spare Titan IV in April 2002. While the hardware was already built, the cost of keeping the crews around several more years was not affordable. (Not only Lockheed Martin, but the Boeing/IUS team, the AF team at Onizuka AFS that flew the IUS, the Titan program office people with their Aerospace Corporation support, the cost to keep the Titan pad and ground facilities maintained several more years, etc). Also, the Defense Logistics Agency was trying to determine if the new vendor for UDMH (a key component in the Titan IV's Aerozine 50 fuel) needed to start making a lot of fuel for the spare Titan IV. The costs were excessive - especially if the AF ended up making a flight batch of oxidizer and fuel and didn't use it. Disposal of the Titan propellant was going to cost more than the manufacturing costs. The cost of a flight load of propellant with disposal included was several tens of millions of dollars.
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Noticed this update on the disposal and final shut down of the Titan program...
http://www.afspc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123027915
According to the article these are the final segments from the final SRM spare set.
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kevin-rf - 27/9/2006 7:49 AM
Noticed this update on the disposal and final shut down of the Titan program...
http://www.afspc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123027915
According to the article these are the final segments from the final SRM spare set.
A shame that SRMU casings had to be destroyed during the disposal process, although understandable. (It surely would have cost much more to do a standard SRMU burn to deplete the propellant - and I'm not sure if that process would result in complete propellant depletion.)
Still, it would have been interesting to see that final Titan IV on display somewhere. Hopefully the core stages won't meet the same fate.
- Ed Kyle
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Dumb question, I asume there will be spare loaded casings at the end of the shuttle program. The casings have to be reused for CLV/CALV, how do they plan on removing the propellant? Burn it off or scrape it out?
What did they do with the loaded post challenger casings when they changed the field joint design?
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They will and were used for test firings