EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE : Air Force Tests New Titan Rocket Motor
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Air Force officials on Monday reported the latest in a series of successful static tests at Edwards Air Force Base of a new, more powerful motor designed to boost the payload capacity of the Titan IV rocket.
The 2-minute, 20-second test on Sunday at the Air Force’s Phillips Laboratory generated about 1.7 million pounds of thrust with the rocket motor attached to a test stand. The test was the third in a series of five planned since 1992 for the so-called solid rocket motor upgrade.
The new motors, if successful, would power the Air Force’s Titan IV rockets, the nation’s second largest capacity space vehicle, after the space shuttle. The original test of the new rocket motor in April, 1991, ended with the motor exploding into a huge fireball.
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