The Titan IIIE or Titan 3E, also known as Titan III-Centaur was an American expendable launch system, launched seven times between 1974 and 1977. It was used to launch several high-profile NASA missions, including the Voyager and Viking planetary probes, and the joint West German-US Helios spacecraft.
The Titan IIIE was a three stage rocket, derived from the Titan IIIC. The primary difference was the replacement of the hypergolic Transtage third stage with the cryogenic Centaur-D upper stage to increase performance. It was the first Titan rocket to use a Centaur upper stage, which would later be used on the Titan IV. A four stage configuration, with an additional upper stage, a Star-37E, was also available, and was used for the two Helios launches. Star-37E stages were also used on the two Voyager launches, but were considered to be part of the payload rather than the rocket.
All seven launches were conducted from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral.
Read more about Titan IIIE: Launch History, Design
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“I stand in awe of my body, this matter to which I am bound has become so strange to me. I fear not spirits, ghosts, of which I am one,—that my body might,—but I fear bodies, I tremble to meet them. What is this Titan that has possession of me? Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature,—daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it,—rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)