Satellite Launch Ends 25 Years of Service for Titan 3 Rockets

The Air Force’s last Titan 3 rocket blasted off early Monday with a secret military satellite, ending a quarter-century of launches by a workhorse booster that has hurled more than 200 satellites into space.

The 16-story rocket, the powerful 34D model, brilliantly illuminated the darkness as it blazed away from its launch pad.

The Air Force said it was the 135th success in 141 launches for the Titan 3 family, a 96% success rate.

Titan 3 rockets were also used to launch two Viking spacecraft toward Mars in 1976 and sent the Voyager 1 and 2 probes in 1977 toward the solar system’s outer reaches.

Voyager 2 two weeks ago sent back stunning images of Neptune and its moon Triton as it completed a grand tour that also included a close-up look at Uranus.

The Air Force is replacing the Titan 3 with the larger Titan 4, the first of which boosted a missile-warning satellite into orbit on June 14.

Officials said Monday’s final Titan 3 payload was secret. Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said the rocket may have carried a reconnaissance satellite.

Many of the satellites carried by Titan 3 rockets have been cloaked in secrecy since the first was launched here in 1964.

The payloads, most of them built for the Pentagon, have performed a number of strategic assignments, including photo reconnaissance, communications, navigation, monitoring missile tests, intercepting military and diplomatic messages, verifying Soviet compliance with arms treaties and establishing an orbiting system to provide instant alert of a missile attack.