Solid Success

For sheer pyrotechnics and power, there had never been a rocket launch like it. From Complex 40 at Cape Kennedy last week, Air Force Titan IIIC, the heaviest and most powerful rocket system ever launched, blasted off in a mighty torrent of flame and smoke, and with a deafening roar soared out of sight. Though U.S. hopes to close the rocket gap with the Soviet Union rode on the new Titan, the competition this time was not so much international as it was between solid rocket fuels and liquids.

The launch was a solid success -- a good, clean lift-off galvanized by 2.4 million Ibs. of thrust from twin solid-fuel boosters. The Titan IIIC resembled three huge bullet-nosed flashlights standing side by side. The 127-ft. center rocket was a souped-up version of the liquid-fueled Titan II that boosted Gemini astronauts on two successful shots. Strapped on to each side were two 85-ft. rockets, each one containing five 39-ton solid-fuel segments stacked one on top of the other. Within three-tenths of a second of ignition, the two solid-fuel boosters reached their full thrust in unison, lifting the whole package clear of its umbilical tower in four seconds. After 108 sec., with the Titan already 28 miles up, the reddish, rubberlike solid fuel burned out and the core rocket roared to life with 470,000 Ibs. of high-altitude thrust. This was the crucial moment, but the change from solids to liquids went off without a hitch. Then 12 minutes after ignition, the third-stage liquid-fuel rocket fired a 21,000-lb. dummy payload into orbit.

The Air Force is counting on the Titan IIIC to be its space workhorse, both for military and experimental purposes. In twelve more test firings, Titan III-Cs with varying configurations of solid engines will orbit payloads of scientific instruments, communications satellites, a satellite for the detection of nuclear explosions in outer space, as well as test runs of equipment for the Air Force's proposed Manned Orbital Laboratory. Future solid boosters, claims United Technology Center, developer of the booster stage, could produce lift-off thrusts of 18 million Ibs. Proponents of solids are even hoping that the Titan IIIC success will get NASA to change its mind and incorporate strap-on solid boosters in its Saturn V, the rocket that is being designed to propel man to the moon.

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