Titan II ICBM - A Brief History
Video from the channel Thompson Atomic Archive about Titan II, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 8:27. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
This US Air Force film explains the so-called concurrency approach: building the missile, its support equipment and its sites, and training the crews, all at the same time. It shows missiles on the assembly line and the Atlas on gantry launch pads, on horizontal launchers and in silos. It also shows the construction of Titan silos and control centers. The narration claims it is the first time the Titan II has been filmed, at its site near Tucson. It ends with an unannounced launch exercise: order authentication, crew checks and liftoff.
When and where it was filmed
The narration treats the 1961 milestones as recent and presents the Titan II as the future launch vehicle for the Gemini missions, so this is footage from the early 1960s. It was filmed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, and in the desert near Tucson, Arizona. The Thompson Atomic Archive channel published it in 2022.
Context
From September 9, 1959, Strategic Air Command crews could launch an Atlas. The Titan flew for the first time in February 1959. In 1960 it made its first two-stage flight, which let it carry more payload farther than the Atlas. On May 3, 1961, a Titan lifted off from a prototype silo at Vandenberg: it was the first free flight of an ICBM from a silo. On June 23, 1961, a modified Titan I successfully tested the Titan II's inertial guidance. The Titan II launches from inside the silo, carries all its guidance on board and uses hypergolic propellants. Thanks to this, the countdown drops from 15 minutes to under one.