The Cape, Chapter 2, Section 3

TITAN and Shuttle Military Space Operations

TITAN IV Launch Contractors and Eastern Range Support Contractors

At this point, a short summary of the TITAN IV's principal contractors and subcontractors is in order. (ATLAS and DELTA contractors will be presented in Chapter III.) The Martin Marietta Corporation was the prime contractor for the TITAN IV launch vehicle. The corporation built the TITAN core stages, fabricated the vehicle's support equipment, activated the TITAN launch sites, integrated the launch vehicle with its payload and conducted the launch operation. Apart from all of those items and services, Martin relied heavily on subcontractors for the following systems:²³

   1. Liquid Rocket Engines (Aerojet Technical Systems).

   2. Solid Rocket Motors (United Technologies, CSD).

   3. Guidance System (DELCO System Operations).

   4. CENTAUR Upper Stage (General Dynamics Space Systems).

   5. Payload Fairing (McDonnell Douglas).

   6. Instrumentation (SCI Systems).

   7. Command/Control Receivers (Cincinnati Electric Corporation).

Figure 43: TITAN III Core Vehicle Fuel and Oxidizer Tanks

In addition to those booster-related contractors, Boeing Aerospace Operations (BAO) was the major contractor for the IUS. The IUS was manufactured and assembled in Seattle, Washington and shipped to the Cape for launch processing. The company used hangars E, F and H for its operations as well as facilities in the Integrate Transfer Launch (ITL) Area of the Cape. Unlike the subcontractors mentioned earlier, BAO was a prime contractor on a par with Martin Marietta. Martin and Boeing were considered associate contractors serving the same program.²⁴

Figure 44: Aerojet TITAN IIIC Liquid Rocket Engine

Two other major contractors need to be mentioned before we move on. The first was Computer Sciences Raytheon (CSR). It was a joint venture partnership between Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and the Raytheon Company. Under the supervision of the 45th Space Wing Commander and his agents, CSR operated and maintained the Eastern Range for all range users in accordance with the Air Force's Range Technical Services (RTS) contract. Under that contract, CSR acquired and reduced launch vehicle and spacecraft flight data for the Launch Vehicle Directorate and other users. The partnership operated, modified, maintained and managed range systems (e.g., optics, radars, telemetry, command/destruct generators, and communications) located at the Cape, Merritt Island, Jonathan Dickinson Missile Tracking Annex, other Florida annexes, on the USNS Redstone and at downrange stations on the islands of Antigua and Ascension.²⁵

Figure 45: TITAN Solid Rocket Motor Stacking

The other contractor was Johnson Controls World Services. As the Launch Base Services (LBS) contractor at the Cape, Johnson Controls provided launch pad safety, security, fire protection, Skid Strip operations, utilities and heavy equipment services for the Launch Vehicle Directorate. Johnson Controls was also responsible for facility planning, maintenance and repair services (e.g., plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, painting, sand-blasting, masonry, etc.). Like CSR, Johnson Controls was supervised by the 45th Space Wing Commander and his agents.²⁶