Titan 34D - Wikipedia

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Size
Launch of the Titan 34D
Function	Heavy carrier rocket
Manufacturer	Martin Marietta
Country of origin	United States
Stages	UA1206 (2) Titan 3B-1 Titan 3B-2 Inertial Upper Stage Transtage
Associated rockets
Family	Titan
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	LC-40, CCAFS SLC-4E, VAFB
Total launches	15
Success(es)	12
Failure(s)	3
First flight	30 October 1982
Last flight	4 September 1989
[edit on Wikidata]

The Titan 34D was a U.S. expendable launch vehicle, used to launch a number of satellites for mostly military applications. After its retirement from military service, a small number were converted to the Commercial Titan III configuration, which included a stretched second stage, and a larger fairing. Several communications satellites, and the NASA Mars Observer spacecraft were launched by commercial Titan 34Ds.

Derived from the Titan III, the Titan 34D featured stretched first and second stages with more powerful solid boosters. 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 on 30 October 1982 with two DSCS defense communications satellites for the United States Department of Defense (DOD).

All launches were conducted from either LC-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station or SLC-4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base. 15 launches were carried out, of which two failed. The first of these was on August 28, 1985 when the core stage suffered a turbopump malfunction and was destroyed by Range Safety. The second proved to be one of the worst space launch disasters in US history when on April 18, 1986, an attempted launch of a KH-9 photo reconnaissance satellite ended catastrophically as the right solid rocket booster ruptured and exploded only eight seconds into the flight, destroying the entire vehicle^{[Other sources 1]} and showering SLC4E with debris and toxic propellant.^{[Other sources 2]}

The disaster drew unfortunate comparisons to the Challenger shuttle accident three months earlier, which was also the victim of a solid rocket motor malfunction. However, the Titan incident was found to have a rather different cause as it had not suffered O-ring burn-through, but instead a failure of the joints holding the booster segments together.

SLC4E was out of commission until October 1987, after which it hosted the remaining two Titan 34D launches without incident.

Use with Vortex satellites

Three Vortex satellites were launched using Titan 34D vehicles between 1984 and 1989.

Date	Spacecraft	NSSDC ID	Comments
1984-01-31	1984-009A	1984-009A	also called Vortex 4
1988-09-02	USA 31	1988-077A	also called Vortex 5
1989-05-10	USA 37	1989-035A	also called Vortex 6

References

^ A. Day, Dwayne (December 15, 2008). "Death of a monster". The Space Review.
^ Isachar, Hanan. "The Titan 34D rocket explosion at Vanderberg Air Force Base, CA". Hanan Isachar Photography.

External links

Encyclopedia Astronautica - Titan 34D

Media

Media related to Titan 34D at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara 1.2 A5 Ariane 6 Atlas V Ceres 1 1S Chollima-1 Electron Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha Gravity-1 GSLV H-IIA H3 Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 3 KAIROS^† Kaituozhe 2 Kinetica 1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11 Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 6A 7 7A 8 11 11H LVM3 Minotaur I IV V C Nuri OS-M1^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qaem 100 Qased RS1^† Shavit 2 Simorgh SLS Block 1 Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v SSLV Starship Tianlong-2 Unha Vega original C Vulcan Centaur Zhuque 2
In development	Antares 330 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Epsilon S Eris Gravity-2 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 9 10 12 Miura 5 MLV Neutron New Glenn New Line 1 NGLV Nova OS-M 2 4 Orbex Prime Pallas-1 Red Dwarf SLS Block 1B Block 2 Soyuz-7 Terran R Tianlong-3 VLM Vega E Zero Zhuque 3 Zuljanah
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 230+ Ariane 1 2 3 4 5 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able^† Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV IV Heavy Diamant Dnepr Energia Epsilon Europa I^† II^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos original 1 2/2I 3 3M Lambda 4S LauncherOne Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan^† Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Rocket 3 Safir 1 1A 1B Saturn I IB V Scout X-1 Blue Scout II^† X-2^† X-2M X-3 X-3M X-4 X-2B^† B A B-1 D-1 A-1 E-1 F-1 G-1 Shavit original 1 SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Terran 1^† Thor Able Ablestar 1 2 Agena A B D Burner 1 2 Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena SLV-2G SLV-2H Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon R-36-O original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M 2FG 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque 1^†
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
This Template lists historical, current, and future space rockets that at least once attempted (but not necessarily succeeded in) an orbital launch or that are planned to attempt such a launch in the future Symbol ^† indicates past or current rockets that attempted orbital launches but never succeeded (never did or has yet to perform a successful orbital launch)

v t e Orbital launch systems developed in the United States
Active	Atlas V**^†† Electron Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha Minotaur I IV V C Pegasus XL RS1^† SLS Block 1 Vulcan Centaur
In development	Antares 330 Daytona I MLV New Glenn Neutron Nova Red Dwarf SLS Block 1B Block 2 Starship Terran R
Retired	Antares 110/120/130/230/230+^††† Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Conestoga Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV IV Heavy Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" H-I* Juno I Juno II LauncherOne N-I* N-II* Pilot Rocket 3 Saturn I IB V Scout Space Shuttle SPARK Sparta Terran 1 Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Vanguard
* - Japanese projects using US rockets or stages ** - uses Russian engines ^† - never succeeded ^†† - no new orders accepted ^††† - used Ukrainian first stage

Titan rockets

Main articles

Rockets

Missiles	HGM-25A Titan I LGM-25C Titan II
Launch Systems	Titan II GLV Titan IIIA Titan IIIB Titan IIIC Titan IIID Titan IIIE Titan 34D Titan 23G Commercial Titan III Titan IV
Unbuilt	Ares Titan-Vanguard Titan-C Titan IIB Titan IIL Titan IIS Soltan Titan IIIL Titan IIIM Titan V

Launch sites

Cape Canaveral	LC-15 LC-16 LC-19 LC-20 (S)LC-40 (S)LC-41
Vandenberg	OSTF SLTF LC-395 SLC-4 SLC-6
Bases	Larson Mountain Home Beale Ellsworth Lowry Davis-Monthan McConnell Little Rock

Components

Boosters	UA1205 UA1206 UA1207 SRMU
Upper stages	Agena Centaur IUS Star-37 TOS Transtage
Engines	AJ-10 B-8096 Orbus 6 Orbus 21 LR-87 LR-91 RL10

Manufacturers

Rocket	Martin Lockheed Martin
Engines	Aerojet Pratt & Whitney Thiokol

Use with Vortex satellites

See also

References

External links

Media