Author Topic: Titan IIIC and IIIC MOL (Read 9147 times)

blupoper · « **on:** 10/07/2020 09:07 am »

Hi,

Does anyone have any good and detailed pics of the Titan IIIC / IIIC MOL rocket? Thanks!

Michel Van · « **Reply #1 on:** 10/09/2020 01:08 pm »

short question

which one ?

The 1965 study for Titan IIIC to launch early Version of MOL
The Titan IIIC 1966 test flight with MOL mockup
Or the Final product the Titan IIIM

catdlr · « **Reply #2 on:** 06/25/2023 08:51 am »

bump....

edkyle99 · « **Reply #3 on:** 06/27/2023 03:37 am »

Right. There was no "Titan IIIC MOL". Titan IIIM, with 7-segment boosters, a stretched first stage, and upgraded Dash-11 series engines, would have orbited DORIAN (MOL) from VAFB SLC-6, but it was cancelled along with MOL in 1969.

On the other hand, Titan 3C-9 carried a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) simulator and three small satellites to low earth orbit from the Cape's LC 40 in 1966, but not before dropping off a Gemini capsule (refurbished Gemini 2) on a suborbital "Heat Shield Qualification" reentry test to Ascension. The MOL simulator, built around a Titan 1 first stage oxidizer tank, remained attached to Transtage during its three-burn, four-orbit mission.

- Ed Kyle

LittleBird · « **Reply #4 on:** 06/27/2023 04:36 am »

Quote from: edkyle99 on 06/27/2023 03:37 am

Right. There was no "Titan IIIC MOL". Titan IIIM, with 7-segment boosters, a stretched first stage, and upgraded Dash-11 series engines, would have orbited DORIAN (MOL) from VAFB SLC-6, but it was cancelled along with MOL in 1969.

On the other hand, Titan 3C-9 carried a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) simulator and three small satellites to low earth orbit from the Cape's LC 40 in 1966, but not before dropping off a Gemini capsule (refurbished Gemini 2) on a suborbital "Heat Shield Qualification" reentry test to Ascension. The MOL simulator, built around a Titan 1 first stage oxidizer tank, remained attached to Transtage during its three-burn, four-orbit mission.

- Ed Kyle

Though there was (first grabs) initially an expectation that several test flights would be made from East Coast on Titan IIIC. As you say, in the end this became just one. See https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23864.msg2349398#msg2349398 and posts around that time.

By 1967 at latest, last grab, the IIIM had appeared and was definitively the MOL booster, from West Coast. This was presumably a direct consequence of the simplification to one payload, the KH-10 camera, allowing the mass requirements to become definitive-a process that was afaik largely complete by then. See https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23864.msg2351009#msg2351009

mike robel · « **Reply #5 on:** 06/28/2023 02:14 am »

Hmmm. I have to pull out my Titan IIIC/MOL and my Titan IIIM/MOL to check the first stage. Since Glenn did not have a specific Titan IIIM model, I crafted it from the IIIC core, added the MOL, and then used the 7 segment solids from the Titan IVA.

OH NO!