Background
The Titan rocket family was established in October 1955 when the Air Force awarded the Glenn L. Martin Company (later Martin Marietta and now Lockheed Martin) a contract to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (SM-68). It became known as the Titan I, the nation's first two-stage ICBM, and replaced the Atlas ICBM as the second underground, vertically stored, silo-based ICBM. Both stages of the Titan I used liquid oxygen and RP-1 (kerosene) as propellants. A subsequent version of the Titan family, the Titan II, was similar to the Titan I, but was much more powerful. Designated as LGM-25C, the Titan II was the largest missile at the time, to be developed by the USAF. The Titan II had newly developed engines which used Aerozine 50 and Nitrogen Tetroxide as fuel and oxidizer.
Titan III development began in 1961 with the Titan IIIA. Years later, the Titan IIIC evolved from the Titan III family. The first Titan IIIC flew on June 18, 1965. The last Titan IIIC was launched in March 1982. A later derivative was the Titan 34D.
Read more about this topic: Titan IIIC
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