Secret Satellite Launched by Titan but It May Not Be in Proper Orbit

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A secret satellite was fired into space Friday in an unannounced launch the Air Force called a success, but a source said the powerful Titan 34D had failed to put the satellite into a high enough orbit.

A flawless flight would have been the third straight success for the three-stage booster rocket, which had been grounded for 18 months.

Engineers were studying the problem to see if they could salvage the mission, according to the source, who is close to the program and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Military Withholds Comment

Lt. Col. Ron Rand, director of public affairs at the Eastern Space and Missile Center here, said the Air Force had a policy of not commenting on the results of military space launches.

The 16-story Titan 34D blazed away from its launch pad at 8:05 a.m., thundering through partly cloudy skies.

The rocket’s third stage ignited correctly the first time, but failed to reignite to put the satellite into the proper orbit, the source said.

The Titan’s payload was secret, but a civilian expert said the booster carried a satellite that could eavesdrop on Soviet military and diplomatic communications.

As has been its practice in recent years, the Air Force did not announce the launch in advance, but issued a statement afterward.

John E. Pike, a space policy expert for the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, said last month that the payload would be a satellite designed to monitor Soviet missile tests and monitor radio, telephone, radar and other electronic military and diplomatic communications.

He said the payload carried an antenna built to unfold to the size of a baseball field.

Titan 4 Set to Debut

The launch was the third straight for the Titan 34D, which will remain the nation’s most powerful unmanned rocket until an upgraded version, the Titan 4, makes its launch debut later this year, also with a military satellite. Both are made by Martin Marietta Corp. in Denver.