The 6555th, Chapter IV, Section 4

Taking the High Ground: The 6555th's Role in Space through 1970

The TITAN III Program

The TITAN III program, however, was a different matter. NASA's plans for the SATURN program were already underway in 1961, and the agency saw no need for another heavyweight space booster for low earth orbit, geosynchronous orbit or deep space missions. Consequently, NASA resisted the Air Force's first attempts to secure funding for the TITAN III initiative, and the Air Force had to work long and hard to prepare its case for the TITAN III. Inter-agency discussions did not reach a turning point until November 1961, when Dr. N.E. Golovin's Large Launch Vehicle Planning Group concluded that the TITAN III was the best booster for DOD missions after 1963. NASA still did not concede any need for the TITAN III until the Golovin Group modified its recommendation on December 5th to conclude that the TITAN III was the best choice for DOD missions after 1965. (Even at that juncture, NASA only considered the TITAN III a gap-filler between the ATLAS/CENTAUR and the much larger SATURN space booster.) Following that concession, initial funding for the TITAN III contractual effort was granted on 11 December 1961, and Space Systems Division's new 624A Systems Program Office began managing the TITAN III program four days later.²²

As engineering efforts proceeded elsewhere, NASA and the Department of Defense signed an agreement in January 1963 which acknowledged the Air Force's jurisdiction over all TITAN III construction at the north end of Cape Canaveral. Though TITAN Complex 41 extended across the Cape Canaveral boundary into NASA's territory on Merritt Island, all property within Complex 41's security fence and along the access road to the site was considered part of the Air Force's Titan III program. Put simply, NASA had jurisdiction over the Merritt Island Launch Area, the SATURN program and SATURN facilities on Merritt Island and Cape Canaveral. The Air Force had jurisdiction over Cape Canaveral, the TITAN III program and all TITAN III facilities, including Complex 41. Though the Air Force Eastern Test Range and its contractors continued to provide range support for all of NASA's launch vehicle programs on Merritt Island and Cape Canaveral, the SATURN and TITAN III programs were pursued as distinctly separate NASA and Air Force launch efforts.²³

The Cape's TITAN IIIC construction program began in earnest on 24 November 1962 after a $4.6 million contract was awarded to the Atlantic Gulf and Pacific Company to prepare sites for launch complexes 40 and 41. Though the timetable for completion of the pads remained "soft" for several months, both complexes had to be connected to other facilities in the TITAN IIIC Integrate-Transfer-Launch (ITL) system via railroad lines across a shallow area in the Banana River. Since much of the land selected for other ITL facilities was also covered by shallow water, most of the area had to be built up, and dredging operations were underway by February 1963 to move 6.5 million cubic yards of landfill from the Banana River to the ITL sites. The contract for the TITAN IIIC launch complexes was awarded to C. H. Leavell and Peter Kiewit & Sons on 13 June 1963, and it was completed in 1965 for approximately $17 million. A $479,500 contract for the TITAN IIIC railroad (i.e. an extension of the NASA railroad network) was awarded to B. B. McCormick, Inc. on 30 July 1963, and it was completed in 1964. Most of the other ITL facilities were grouped under a $26.8 million contract awarded to the firm of Paul Hardeman and Morrison-Knudsen on 30 July 1963. That contract was completed on 16 April 1965.²⁴

DREDGES IN OPERATION AT CAPE ITL AREA

VERTICAL INTEGRATION BUILDING AREA 1963

AERIAL VIEW OF ITL AREA 29 April 1964

SMAB AND VIB CONSTRUCTION 22 April 1964

COMPLEX 40 PAD AREA LOOKING EAST 2 January 1964

TITAN III LOCOMOTIVES 16 November 1964

AERIAL VIEW OF TITAN IIIC AREA November 1964

COMPLEX 20 TITAN IIIA PAD CREW October 1964

FIRST LAUNCH OF TITAN IIIA FROM PAD 20 1 September 1964

To coordinate those construction efforts and prepare for the TITAN IIIC's debut at Cape Canaveral, the 6555th formed a task force on 15 January 1963. The task force was led by Major Robert B. Gallman initially, and it was composed of all the staff and operating units of Gallman's TITAN III/X-20 Division, three officers from the 6555th's Missile Test Facilities Office and the Aerospace Corporation's 624A Project Office. In addition to the ITL area construction, the task force monitored an $819,000 contract with Julian Evans and Associates to modify Complex 20 for TITAN IIIA operations. That contract was completed to the point of beneficial occupancy in September 1963, and Martin's sub-contractors completed equipment installation and ground systems testing on Complex 20 by the end of June 1964. Martin launched the first TITAN IIIA from Complex 20 on 1 September 1964, and three more TITAN IIIA flights were completed before the first TITAN IIIC was launched from Complex 40 on a successful mission on 18 June 1965. Following the fourth and final TITAN IIIA launch on 6 May 1965, Complex 20 was deactivated and returned to the Air Force Eastern Test Range in September 1965. Complex 41 was turned over to the TITAN III Division's Operations Branch for beneficial occupancy on 18 June 1965, and the facility was accepted by the Air Force in December 1965.²⁵

TITAN IIIC AND GANTRY ON PAD 40 23 MAY 1965

LAUNCH OF 1ST TITAN IIIC FROM COMPLEX 40 18 June 1965

As ITL construction got underway in the summer of 1963, officers and men poured into the TITAN III/X-20 Division to oversee the work. Among the new arrivals was Lieutenant Colonel Marc M. Ducote, who replaced Major Gallman as Division Chief. Major Gallman continued to serve the Division as its Test Support Branch Chief, and Major E. J. D'Arcy arrived in October 1963 to serve as the Division's Flight Test Operations Branch Chief. The Division had 31 officers, 18 airmen and 14 civilians assigned to monitor the TITAN III program by the end of 1963, and the personnel roster grew to 39 officers, 31 airmen and 14 civilians by the middle of 1964. Following cancellation of the DYNA SOAR project in 1963, the Division was renamed the TITAN III Division, and it was reorganized into three branches in 1964 to provide more efficient supervision of the contractors' efforts. Under the new organization, Lieutenant Colonel Ducote continued as Division Chief, and Major D'Arcy ran the Systems Branch. Major Edwin E. Speaker served as Operations Branch Chief, and Major Ralph S. Davison managed the Test Support Branch. In the fall of 1964, four SAC officers were assigned to the Division to learn more about the TITAN III system before SAC played host to TITAN IIIB and TITAN IIID launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Rounding out the year in December, the TITAN III Division gained a new agency -- the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Branch -- with Major Joseph R. Henry as its chief. The MOL Branch became the Payloads Branch in the last half of 1965, and it assumed responsibility for all TITAN IIIC payloads.²⁶

TITAN III OPERATIONS CONTROL CREW 14 October 1965

TITAN IIIC LAUNCH FROM PAD 40 15 October 1965

Following the first TITAN IIIC launch in June 1965, service contractors refurbished Complex 40 for the Cape's second TITAN IIIC flight. Though the second TITAN IIIC launch went well on 15 October 1965, the vehicle suffered a malfunction at the start of a transfer orbit, and it failed to complete its experimental mission. During the same period, the Martin Company and its sub-contractors were hard at work on Complex 41 to prepare that facility for its first TITAN IIIC launch in December. Complex 41 was accepted by the Air Force on 15 December 1965, and the first TITAN IIIC lifted off Pad 41 on December 21st. The flight met most of its test objectives, including the successful release of the LES-3 and LES-4 communications satellites and the OSCAR IV (amateur radio) satellite. Two more TITAN IIIC missions were launched from Complex 41 on 16 June and 26 August 1966. The first of those flights included the successful release of seven Initial Defense Communications Satellite Program (IDCSP) satellites and one gravity gradient satellite, but the second flight ended after the TITAN IIIC's payload fairing broke up approximately 79 seconds after launch. (Eight IDCSP satellites were destroyed in the mishap.) Another TITAN IIIC was launched from Complex 40 on 3 November 1966, and it boosted a modified GEMINI spacecraft and three secondary satellites into orbit during a largely successful experimental mission on that date.²⁷

COMPLEX 41 26 August 1966

Since the Air Force intended to use Complex 40 for its Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) flights, Complex 41 eventually supported all the TITAN IIIC missions launched from the Cape between the beginning of 1967 and the end of the decade. On the first of those missions, a TITAN IIIC boosted eight IDCSP satellites into orbit on 18 January 1967. Martin also launched two VELA nuclear detection satellites and three environmental research satellites aboard a TITAN IIIC on April 28th, and it launched three more IDCSP satellites, two other communications satellites and a Department of Defense Gravity Experiment (DODGE) on 1 July 1967. In 1968, a TITAN IIIC placed eight IDCSP satellites into orbit on June 13th, and another TITAN IIIC boosted the LES-6 communications satellite and three scientific satellites into various orbits on September 26th. The next TITAN IIIC mission placed a 1,600-pound Air Force communications satellite into orbit on February 9th, and another TITAN IIIC boosted two VELA satellites and three experimental satellites into orbit on 23 May 1969.²⁸

TITAN IIIC GEMINI/MOL LAUNCH 3 November 1966

TITAN IIIC IDCSP SATELLITE MISSION FROM PAD 41 18 January 1967

No TITAN IIICs were launched in the last half of 1969, but two more TITAN IIIC missions lifted off Complex 40 in 1970. The first of those two flights concluded the VELA detection satellite launch program by boosting ARPA's 11th and 12th VELA satellites into orbit on 8 April 1970. The other flight took place on November 6th, and it involved a classified DOD payload. Complex 40 continued to be used for classified missions during the 1970s and 1980s, but Complex 41 supported only a handful of TITAN III missions before it was deactivated at the end of 1977. Complex 41 was refurbished for the TITAN IV program during the last half of the 1980s, but its first TITAN IV launch did not take place until 14 June 1989 -- almost 12 years after it was used to launch the VOYAGER missions to the outer planets.²⁹

TITAN IIIC VELA SATELLITE MISSION FROM PAD 40 8 April 1970