Titan Geneology Credit - © Mark Wade

Whatever the controversies at its genesis, the Titan has outlived the Saturn and will continue in use in the 21st century. It was originally conceived as a carrier of manned military spacecraft - first the X-20A Dynasoar, then the Gemini B and Manned Orbiting Laboratory, and finally lifting body spaceplanes in support of MOL follow-on space stations. All of these projects were cancelled in turn. Titans have been used instead to launch unmanned military spacecraft, ranging from heavy photoreconnaisance platforms in low earth orbit to geosynchronous communications, missile launch detection, and ELINT satellites.

After NASA junked the Saturn launch vehicle family in the mid-1970's, and the Challenger disaster in the 1980's, Titans were used for launching NASA deep-space probes. Whatever trouble NASA managed to get itself into, the Titan was still there to keep its planetary exploration program going.

Titan has not been successful as a commercial launch vehicle, the Ariane of similar technology providing lower-cost access to space. Current development of the XCRV manned spacecraft may result in the Titan 4 providing the US with its only manned access to space in the event of another Shuttle disaster or cancellation of the Shuttle and International Space Station projects.

	Titan-Vanguard	The Martin Company proposed to the Department of Defense that the first stage of the Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile be combined with the Vanguard rocket...more.
	Soltan	The progenitor of the Titan 3 was this design, which used two, 3 segment, 100 inch diameter solid rocket boosters. The 100 inch segmented boosters had already...more.
	Titan C	The Titan C, a Titan II booster stage topped by a new liquid oxygen/hydrogen upper stage, was the launch vehicle selected in November 1959 for the DynaSoar orbital...more.
	Titan 1	ICBM, built as back-up to Atlas, using two stages instead of one and a half, and conventional tank construction in lieu of balloon tanks. It was also to have been...more.
	Titan 2	ICBM, developed also as the launch vehicle for the manned Gemini spacecraft in the early 1960's. When the ICBM's were retired in the 1980's they were refurbished and a new series of launches began....more.
	Ares ICBM	The Ares single-stage, liquid-propellant ICBM was the objective of propulsion studies at both Aerojet and Rocketdyne....more.
	Titan 3A	Titan with Transtage third stage. Core for Titan 3C....more.
	Titan 3C	Titan 3A with five segment solid motors. Man-rated design originally developed for Dynasoar spaceplane....more.
	Titan 3B	Titan core with Agena upper stage. Found to be more cost effective and higher performance than using Transtage....more.
	Titan 3BAS2	Configuration of Titan 3B proposed by Martin in mid-1960's. Titan 3B for deep space missions with Centaur upper stage, Algol strapons for liftoff thrust augmentation. Never flown....more.
	Titan 3C7	Variant of Titan 3C with seven segment solid motors. Proposed by Martin for precise delivery of payloads beyond Titan 3C capacity into geosynch orbit. Never flown....more.
	Titan 3D	Titan 3C without transtage....more.
	Titan 3L2	Variant of Titan with 15 foot Large Diameter Core, 2 x 7 segment strap-ons. Man-rated, optimized for delivery of heavy payloads into LEO. Never developed....more.
	Titan 3L4	Variant of Titan with 15 foot Large Diameter Core, 4 x 7 segment strap-ons. Man rated, optimized for delivery of 40,000 pound manned payloads into 250 nm / 50 deg space station orbit....more.
	Titan 3M	Man-rated launch vehicle designed for MOL and other missions of the 1970's. Malfunction Detection System initiated abort procedures during launch. Also suited...more.
	Titan 3E	Titan 3D with Centaur D-1T upper stage. Used by NASA for deep space missions in 1970's....more.
	Titan 34D	Stretched Titan core with 5 1/2 segment solid rocket motors. IUS (Interim/Inertial Upper Stage) solid upper stages or used without upper stages....more.
	Barbarian MM	The Zenith Star space-based chemical laser missile defence weapon required a launch vehicle capable of placing a 45,000 kg payload into low earth orbit. Martin...more.
	Titan 5	Proposed Titan upgrade with cryogenic core as replacement for NLS....more.
	Titan 4	Developed to handle military payloads designed for launch on Shuttle from Vandenberg before the USAF pulled out of the Shuttle program after the Challenger disaster....more.
	Titan 4B	Titan 4 with Upgraded Solid Rocket Motors replacing UA1207. Developed to improve performance for certain missions, and reduce number of field joints in motor after...more.