spacetoday.net: Titan 4 launches classified payload

Posted: Tue, Sep 9, 2003, 11:04 AM ET (1504 GMT)
Titan 4B launch (Lockheed Martin file photo)

A Titan 4B booster successfully launched a classified surveillance satellite early Tuesday. The Titan 4B lifted off from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral at 12:29 am EDT (0429 GMT) Tuesday, 77 minutes behind schedule in order to check a vehicle temperature reading. Few details about the launch were released by the Air Force, and a news blackout was imposed after the first of an expected three burns by the Titan’s Centaur upper stage. While the military would not disclose any specifics about the satellite, Spaceflight Now reported that the spacecraft was likely an Advanced ORION signals intelligence satellite for the National Reconnaissance Satellite. Such satellites, located in geosynchronous orbit, eavesdrop on a wide range of communications. The launch was the second this year for the Titan 4 and the last Titan 4 launch to use the Centaur upper stage. Only three more Titan 4 launches are scheduled: two in 2004 from Cape Canaveral and one in 2005 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. With the last Titan 4/Centaur launch completed, Florida Today reported that Lockheed Martin is expected to lay off nine people who specifically work on the Centaur upper stage. This is the first in a series of layoffs that will eventually affect 400 to 500 people who work on the Titan 4 program in Florida.