Behind the Scenes of Titan II "Part 4 – Launch Sequence"

Video from the channel Titan Missile Museum about Titan II, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 5:17. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

A guide at the Titan Missile Museum shows the commander's console in the control center and re-enacts the launch sequence that the museum performs seven times a day. In the 1970s he served as a ballistic missile analyst technician at a Titan silo on the other side of Tucson.

The order arrives as a 41-character emergency action message. The commander and the deputy commander copy it separately, exchange logbooks and compare them before decoding it. To verify that the order comes from the president, they use the contents of a red safe, where the nuclear war plans were kept. The deputy commander writes down the launch time on a clock synchronized to the second. The two keys are seven and a half feet apart, spring back to their position on their own, and must be turned simultaneously for five seconds.

The sequence lights then come on in order: - Launch enable: from this point on, the launch can no longer be stopped. - Battery activation: it takes 28 seconds to fill with electrolyte. - Missile on internal power. - Silo open. - Guidance ready. - Engine start. - Liftoff, about two seconds later.

The guide stresses that no one, not even the president, can launch a nuclear weapon on their own. He places the exercise within a coordinated attack in which the 54 Titan IIs, the Minuteman missiles, the submarines and the bombers would cross the North Pole.