Open User Keys Help in Second Window Jump to main content
GRIN - Great Images in NASA
Browse by Subject
Browse by Center
Search by Keywords
Frequent Questions
How to Use GRIN
Copyright Information
NASA InsigniaVisit NASA's home Site. 		Photo Banner of four images in GRIN.
Main Content
First Titan-Centaur Launch Test Main Content
NASA Center: Kennedy Space Center
Image # : FirstTitan-Centaur
Date : 02/11/1974

Title

First Titan-Centaur Launch Test

Full Description

The first Titan/Centaur lifted off from Complex 41 at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station at 9:48 AM EDT. The Titan stages burned as programmed, but when the Centaur stage failed to ignite, the Range Safety Officer destroyed it. The new NASA rocket was launched on a proof of concept flight designed to prepare it for twin Viking launches to Mars in 1975 and other missions involving heavy payloads. The 160-foot-tall rocket combines the Air Force Titan III with the NASA high-energy Centaur final stage. The twin solid rocket boosters have a combined liftoff thrust of 2.4 million pounds. Aboard Titan/ Centaur on its proof of concept flight were a dynamic simulator of the Viking spacecraft and a small scientific satellite (SPHINX) designed to determine how high voltage solar cells, insulators, and conductors are affected by the charges particles in space. KSC's Unmanned Launch Operations Directorate conducted the launch. For more information about Titan and Centaur, please see Chapters 4 and 8, respectively, in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002.

Keywords

Titan Centaur Launch SPHINX Viking vehicle, 74-H-92, 74-HC-62

Subject Category

Rocket Launches, Centaur, Titan

Reference Numbers

  • Center: KSC
  • Center Number: FirstTitan-Centaur
  • GRIN DataBase Number: GPN-2003-00040

Source Information

  • Creator/Photographer: NASA
  • Original Source: NASA

Image Information ( Copyright Notification )

ResolutionFormatWidth
(Pixels)		Height
(Pixels)		Size
(KBytes)
Thumbnail JPEG 70 90 11
Small JPEG 562 718 424
Medium JPEG 1170 1495 1,960
Large JPEG 2340 2990 9,157

Jump to main content

Other relevant NASA Web sites:
• NASA Headquarters
• NASA History Office
• NASA Image eXchange (NIX)
• NASA Multimedia Gallery
• NASA Human Spaceflight

Updated October 31, 2002
• History Questions: NASA History Office
• Responsible NASA Official: Steve Garber
• Author: Michael Hahn.  Editor: Dwayne A. Day
• Curator & Technical Questions: Erin Needham
• NASA's Privacy Statement