Final flight

Thursday, October 20th of 2005 marked the end of an era. At 11:05 AM PDT, the final Titan rocket blasted off into space. A Titan IV-B rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. This marks the final launch of a Titan vehicle, bringing to a close a history of 368 launches dating from 1959. Though the Titan is best known as the backbone of U.S. heavy launch (Delta IV now has that crown), it also served the needs of the manned spaceflight program: NASA's manned Gemini missions depended on the Titan II to launch astronauts into orbit.

Congratulations to all of the Titan employees & contractors, and thank you for your service. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.