Unmanned Titan Roars Into Orbit

An Air Force Titan 4 rocket, America’s newest and most powerful unmanned booster, roared into space today in a triumphant maiden flight to reportedly put a $180-million early warning satellite into orbit.

The 174-foot rocket’s two solid-fuel boosters, each as tall as a 10-story building, flashed to life at 9:18 a.m., shattering the morning calm with a gush of fire and a crackling roar that shook the ground for miles around.

Running eight months behind schedule, the Titan 4, centerpiece of a $14-billion military space buildup, thundered from launch complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, arcing east over the Atlantic Ocean atop a billowing trail of dirty white exhaust.

Launch originally was planned for last October, but sources said a series of technical problems, including trouble with the rocket’s 56-foot nose-cone housing and the satellite’s “inertial upper-stage” booster, caused repeated delays.

But other than a few last-minute snags today, it was smooth sailing; about two minutes after liftoff, the 1.9-million-pound Titan’s liquid-fueled first-stage engine fired as planned and seconds later, the twin boosters fell from the climbing rocket, their 591,000-pound loads of propellant exhausted.

The Titan was the first of at least 23 being built by Martin Marietta under a $5.1-billion contract that serves as the centerpiece of a Pentagon program to eliminate Pentagon reliance on NASA’s space shuttle for launching heavy military payloads.