Why The Titan II Is My Favorite Vintage Rocket | Vintage Retrospekt
Video from the channel Vintage Retrospekt about Titan II, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 6:27. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
The channel's host explains why the Titan II is his favourite rocket. He reviews its role in crewed spaceflight, its first-stage engine and the way it resolved staging compared with the Atlas.
Historical context
The Titan II launched the Gemini program's capsules, which the video presents as the testbed for crewed flights to the Moon. It achieved the first orbital rendezvous between two American spacecraft, trialled docking in low Earth orbit and carried out the first American spacewalk. It also paved the way for the Titan III and Titan IV.
Key facts
Both stages used the same propellant combination, Aerozine 50 and nitrogen tetroxide. The first stage's LR87 engine had two nozzles fed by a shared turbopump and ran on an open gas-generator cycle. For comparison, the video describes the Atlas's stage-and-a-half layout: a central LR105 sustainer engine flanked by two LR89 boosters. The LR89s were jettisoned in flight along with their skirt to lighten the rocket. The Titan II simplified this with two complete stages.