Titan IVB

The Titan IVB was a heavy expendable launch system, that was first launched on February 23, 1997. The Titan IVs were made near Denver, Colorado by Lockheed Martin Space System and manufactured by McDonell Douglas Space Systems Corporation. The rocket was used mainly by the U.S. Air Force, but was also used commercially, and scientifically for other purposes. The Titan rocket family was established in 1955 by Lockheed Martin, (formerly known as the Martin Company during that time period). The Titan IVB, was the last rocket produced in the Titan family of rockets. The Titan IVB had and used a liquid fueled core and two solid rocket motors. The burn time for it was 120 seconds. The rocket used Aerozine 50 fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizers as the propellant for the two storable liquid fuel core stages. While stage 1 and stage 2 used LR87-AJ-11 liquid propellant rocket engine that had a burn time of 164 seconds, and a LR91-AJ-11 liquid propellant engine that had a burn time of 223 seconds, respectively. The Titan IVB did though, have optional upper stages, that included the Centaur and a Inertial Upper Stage. The LR87-AJ-11 provides and average of 2,428.3kN (545,906 pounds of force), while the LR91-AJ-11 produces 459.5kN of thrust (103,000 pounds of force). The RL10A-3A3 engine for the Centaur produces 147.2kN of thrust (33,100 pounds of force), as well as the Inertial Upper Stage producing 184.6kN of thrust (41,500 pounds of force). The Centaur Upper Stage could use a RL-104 or a RL-10-4-1 as well. The Titan IVB is able to carry a payload of 17,700kg (39,000lb) to LEO. The Titan IVB had 4 failed launches in the rockets lifetime. The Titan IVB is 50-62m (164-207ft) tall and has a diameter of 3.05m (10ft). The rocket costed roughly 250-432 million dollars per launch. The last launch of the Titan IVB lifted of on April 29, 2005 at Cape Canaveral and on October 19, 2005 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Titan IV career ended short because of the high operational costs.