1.
United States Air Force
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The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source
2.
45th Space Wing
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The 45th Space Wing is a United States Air Force unit. It is assigned to the Fourteenth Air Force, stationed at Patrick Air Force Base and it commands Patrick AFB and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The mission of the 45th Space Wing is to access to the high frontier. The wing formerly operated the recently discontinued Titan IV rocket and it employs 9,512 military and civilians. Since August 4,2015, it is under the command of Brigadier General Wayne R. Monteith, the wing commander formerly served as the deputy DOD manager for the Department of Defense Manned Space Flight Support Office. 45th Medical Group 45th Mission Support Group See also, 45th Operations Group, 45th Launch Group, 6555th Aerospace Test Group for additional lineage, organized to maintain and operate the proving ground facilities in coordination and collaboration with other agencies of the national guided missile program. Provided static and flight testing to meet requirements of Army, Navy, from May 1950 to May 1951, had separate operating agency status, assigned directly to Headquarters, United States Air Force. Operated Down-Range facilities at Antigua, Ascension Island, and Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida, 1951–1977, after Oct 1979, launched DOD payloads into orbit and collected flight data for evaluation of ballistic missile systems launched from Eastern Launch sites for DOD, NASA, and commercial customers. Patrick AFB Home Page 45th Space Wing
3.
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
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Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Commands 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida, CCAFS is the primary head of Americas Eastern Range with three launch pads currently active. The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip provides a 10, 000-foot runway close to the launch complexes for military airlift aircraft delivering heavy, a number of American space exploration firsts were launched from CCAFS, including the first U. S. Earth satellite, first U. S. astronaut, first U. S. astronaut in orbit, first two-man U. S. spacecraft, first U. S. unmanned lunar landing, and first three-man U. S. spacecraft. The CCAFS area had used by the United States government to test missiles since 1949. On June 1,1948, the U. S. Navy transferred the former Banana River Naval Air Station to the U. S. Air Force, with USAF renaming the facility the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Base on June 10,1949. On October 1,1949, the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Base was transferred from the Air Materiel Command to the Air Force Division of the Joint Long Range Proving Ground. On May 17,1950, the base was renamed the Long Range Proving Ground Base, in 1951, the Air Force established the Air Force Missile Test Center. Early American sub-orbital rocket flights were achieved at Cape Canaveral in 1956 and these flights occurred shortly after sub-orbital flights launched from White Sands Missile Range, such as the Viking 12 sounding rocket on February 4,1955. Following the Soviet Unions successful Sputnik 1, the US attempted its first launch of a satellite from Cape Canaveral on December 6,1957. However, the rocket carrying Vanguard TV3 blew up on the launch pad, NASA was founded in 1958, and Air Force crews launched missiles for NASA from the Cape, known then as Cape Canaveral Missile Annex. The row of Titan and Atlas launch pads along the coast came to be known as Missile Row in the 1960s, nASAs first manned spaceflight program was prepared for launch from Canaveral by U. S. Air Force crews. Mercurys objectives were to place a spacecraft in Earth orbit, investigate human performance and ability to function in space. Suborbital flights were launched by derivatives of the Armys Redstone missile from LC-5, Orbital flights were launched by derivatives of the Air Forces larger Atlas D missile from LC-14. The first American in orbit was John Glenn on February 20,1962, three more orbital flights followed through May 1963. Flight control for all Mercury missions was provided at the Mercury Control Center located at Canaveral near LC-14 and he had also convinced Gov. C. Farris Bryant to change the name of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy and this resulted in some confusion in public perception, which conflated the two. This name was used through the Gemini and early Apollo programs, however, the geographical name change proved to be unpopular, owing to the historical longevity of Cape Canaveral
4.
Delta II
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Delta II is an American expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II is part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989, Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000, and two Delta 7000 variants. In the early 1980s, all United States expendable launch vehicles were planned to be phased out in favor of the Space Shuttle, production of Delta, Atlas-Centaur, and Titan 34D had ended. McDonnell Douglas, at time the manufacturer of the Delta family. These were intended to launch a series of GPS Block II satellites, the Air Force exercised additional contract options in 1988, expanding this order to 20 vehicles, and NASA purchased its first Delta IIs in 1990 for the launch of three Earth-observing satellites. The first Delta II launch occurred in 1989, with a Delta 6925 boosting the first GPS Block II satellite into a 20,000 km high orbit, the first Delta II 7000-series flew in 1990, replacing the RS-27 engine of the 6000-series with the more powerful RS-27A. Additionally, the steel-cased Castor 4A solid boosters of the 6000 series were replaced with the composite-cased GEM40, all further Delta II launches except three were of this upgraded configuration, and the 6000-series was retired in 1992. McDonnell Douglas began Delta III development in the mid-90s as increasing satellite mass required more powerful launch vehicles, the upgraded boosters would still find use on the Delta II, leading to the Delta II Heavy. In total, the Delta II family has launched 153 times, no one was injured, and the launch pad itself was not seriously impacted, though several cars were destroyed and a few buildings were damaged. In 2007, Delta II completed its 75th consecutive successful launch, with the launch of SMAP in 2015, the Delta II has enjoyed 98 consecutive successful launches, with two more scheduled in 2017 and 2018. Should these launches be successful, the Delta II would achieve an unprecedented 100 consecutive launch successes, the first stage of the Delta II is propelled by a Rocketdyne RS-27 main engine burning RP-1 and liquid oxygen. This stage is referred to as the Extra-Extended Long Tank Thor. The RS-27 used on the 6000-series Delta II produced 915 kN, the stage is 26 meters long and 2.4 meters wide, weighs over 100 t when fueled, and burns for 260 seconds. In addition, two LR101-NA-11 vernier engines provide guidance for the first stage, for additional thrust during launch, the Delta II uses solid boosters. For the 6000-series, Delta II used Castor 4A boosters, while the 7000-series uses Graphite-Epoxy Motors manufactured by ATK, the vehicle can be flown with three, four, or, most commonly, nine boosters. The second stage of Delta II is the Delta-K, powered by a restartable Aerojet AJ10-118K engine burning hypergolic Aerozine-50 and these propellants are highly toxic and corrosive, and once loaded the launch must occur within approximately 37 days or the stage will have to be refurbished or replaced. This stage also contains a combined platform and guidance system that controls all flight events. The Delta-K stage is 6 meters long and 2.4 meters wide, contains up to 6 t of propellant, for low Earth orbit, Delta II is not equipped with a third stage
5.
Delta III
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The Delta III rocket was an expendable launch vehicle made by Boeing. The first Delta III launch was on August 26,1998, of its three flights, the first two were failures, and the third, though declared successful, reached the low end of its targeted orbit range and carried only a dummy payload. The Delta III could deliver up to 8,400 pounds to geostationary orbit, twice the payload of its predecessor. Under the 4-digit designation system from earlier Delta rockets, the Delta III is classified as the Delta 8930. Like the Delta II, the first stage of the Delta III burned kerosene, while the propellant load and gross mass of the stage were nearly identical to the Delta II, the diameter of the kerosene tank was increased from 2.4 meters to 4 meters. This reduced the length of the vehicle and allowed the Delta III to use the same launch facilities as the Delta II with only minor modifications. First stage thrust was augmented by nine GEM-46 solid rocket boosters and these were 14.7 meters in length,1.2 m in diameter, and had a mass of 19 metric tons each, about 6 metric tons more than the Delta IIs standard GEM-40 motors. Six were ignited on the pad, while the remaining three were ignited just before burnout and separation of the ground-lit boosters. To maintain steering authority, three of the boosters had vectoring nozzles, GEM-46 boosters would later find use on the Delta II, leading to the Delta II Heavy. The second stage of the Delta III was the newly developed Delta Cryogenic Second Stage, the liquid hydrogen tank was 4 meters in diameter, while the separate liquid oxygen tank was 2.4 meters in diameter. This stage offered significantly better performance than the Delta IIs second stage, the Delta-K, after Delta IIIs retirement, this stage was modified for use as the Delta IVs second stage. The payload fairing was a new design, matching the upper stage hydrogen tank at 4 meters diameter. The failure and subsequent vehicle motion depleted the hydraulic fluid used for steering, upon loss of control, the vehicle was destroyed. The Galaxy X satellite was destroyed, Delta Flight 269, The second launch on May 4,1999, carrying the Orion 3 satellite, also ended in failure. The second stage engine experienced an anomaly and rupture, and shut down while its second burn was underway. Delta Flight 280, The third and final flight on August 23,2000 launched a 4,348 kg satellite simulator into a 180.76 x 20,694 km orbit, Delta Comparison of orbital launchers families History of the Delta Launch Vehicle Spaceflight Now article 8/21/2000
6.
Atlas II
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Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. It was designed to launch payloads into low orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. The Atlas line was continued by the Atlas III, used between 2000 and 2005, and the Atlas V which is still in use, Atlas II provided higher performance than the earlier Atlas I by using engines with greater thrust and longer fuel tanks for both stages. LR-89 and RS-27 were replaced by the RS-56, derived from the RS-27, the total thrust capability of the Atlas II of 490,000 pounds force enabled the booster to lift payloads of 6,100 pounds into geosynchronous transfer orbit of 22,000 miles or more. Atlas II was the last Atlas to use a three engine, stage-and-a-half design, two of its three engines were jettisoned during ascent, but its fuel tanks and other elements were retained. The two booster engines, RS-56-OBAs, were integrated into a unit called the MA-5A and shared a common gas generator. They burned for 164 seconds before being jettisoned, the central sustainer engine, an RS-56-OSA, would burn for an additional 125 seconds. The Vernier engines on the first stage of the Atlas I were replaced by a hydrazine fueled roll control system and this series used an improved Centaur upper stage, the world’s first cryogenic propellant stage, to increase its payload capability. Atlas II also had lower-cost electronics, a flight computer and longer propellant tanks than its predecessor. The original Atlas II was based on the Atlas I and its predecessors and this version flew between 1991 and 1998. Atlas IIA was a designed to service the commercial launch market. The main improvement was the switch from the RL10A-3-3A to RL10A-4 engine on the Centaur upper stage, the IIA version flew between 1992 and 2002. Atlas IIAS was largely identical to IIA, but added four Castor 4A solid rocket boosters to increase performance and these boosters were ignited in pairs, with one pair igniting on the ground, and the second igniting in the air shortly after the first pair separated. The half-stage booster section would then drop off as usual, IIAS was used between 1993 and 2004, concurrently with IIA. Led by lead engineer Samuel Wagner, the Atlas II was crucial to the development of the United States space program. Atlas IIs were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. by the 45th Space Wing, the final West Coast Atlas II launch was accomplished December 2003 by the 30th Space Wing, Vandenberg AFB, California
7.
Atlas III
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The Lockheed Martin Atlas III was an American orbital launch vehicle, used between 2000 and 2005. The Atlas III consisted of two stages, the first stage was new, but the upper stage was the Centaur, which is still in use today on the Atlas V EELV. The first stage engines were Russian RD-180s, which are used by the Atlas V. The Atlas III was produced in two versions, the baseline was the Atlas IIIA, but the Atlas IIIB, featuring a twin-engine version of the Centaur upper stage, was also produced. The maiden flight of the Atlas III occurred on May 24,2000, all Atlas III launches were made from Space Launch Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Atlas III made its sixth and last flight on February 3,2005 and it would have launched from the Tanegashima Space Center, south of Kyūshū, Japan. In December 2009 the Japanese government decided to cancel the GX project
8.
Titan IV
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The Titan IV family of rockets were used by the U. S. Air Force. They were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, at the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force. As originally conceived in the mid-1980s, the Titan IV was only intended to complement the space shuttle, however, the Challenger Disaster caused a renewed dependence on expendable launch vehicles so that the program was significantly expanded. Under the original plan, the Titan IV would only be paired with Centaur stages, the post-Challenger program also involved flying IUS or even no upper stages. LC-41 at the Cape was also converted for Titan IV use along with SLC-4E, the latter, a Titan II/IIIB pad, was completely rebuilt for Titan-Centaur launches. The end of the Cold War a few years later caused Department of Defense programs to be scaled back significantly so that one of the planned VABF Titan IV sites was cancelled. Even with the schedule, almost forty Titan IVs were scheduled as of 1991. The Titan IV was the last of the Titan family of rockets and it was retired in 2005 due to its high cost of operation. The final launch from Cape Canaveral AFS occurred on April 29,2005, lockheed Martin Space Systems built the Titan IVs near Denver, Colorado, under contract to the government. The Titan IV was developed to provide assured capability to launch Space Shuttle–class payloads for the Air Force, the Titan IV could be launched with no upper stage, or either of two upper stages, the IUS, and the Centaur rocket upper stage. The Titan IV was made up of two large solid-fuel rocket boosters and a two-stage liquid-fueled core, the two storable liquid fuel core stages used Aerozine 50 fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. These propellants are hypergolic and are liquids at room temperature, so no tank insulation is needed and this allows the launcher to be stored in a ready state for extended periods. However, both propellants are extremely toxic, choice of launch site depended on mission parameters and mission goals. The Titan rocket family was established in October 1955 when the Air Force awarded the Glenn L. Martin Company a contract to build an intercontinental ballistic missile. It became known as the Titan I, the nations first two-stage ICBM, both stages of the Titan I used liquid oxygen and RP-1 as propellants. A subsequent version of the Titan family, the Titan II, was similar to the Titan I, designated as LGM-25C, the Titan II was the largest missile developed for the USAF at that time. The Titan IV was flown in a variety of configurations depending on the needs, including no upper stages, IUS stages. Titan III development began in 1964 with the Titan IIIA, years later, the Titan IVB evolved from the Titan III family and is similar to the Titan 34D
9.
Space Shuttle
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The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System, taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development, the first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. Five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, the Shuttle fleets total mission time was 1322 days,19 hours,21 minutes and 23 seconds. Shuttle components included the Orbiter Vehicle, a pair of solid rocket boosters. The Shuttle was launched vertically, like a rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the OVs three main engines, which were fueled from the ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, and the ET was jettisoned just before orbit insertion, at the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to de-orbit and re-enter the atmosphere. The orbiter then glided as a spaceplane to a landing, usually at the Shuttle Landing Facility of KSC or Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base. After landing at Edwards, the orbiter was back to the KSC on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The first orbiter, Enterprise, was built in 1976 for use in Approach, four fully operational orbiters were initially built, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. Of these, two were lost in accidents, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, with a total of fourteen astronauts killed. A fifth operational orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger, the Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of Atlantiss final flight on July 21,2011. Nixons post-Apollo NASA budgeting withdrew support of all components except the Shuttle. The vehicle consisted of a spaceplane for orbit and re-entry, fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982, all launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The system was retired from service in 2011 after 135 missions, the program ended after Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21,2011. Major missions included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, the first orbiter vehicle, named Enterprise, was built for the initial Approach and Landing Tests phase and lacked engines, heat shielding, and other equipment necessary for orbital flight. A total of five operational orbiters were built, and of these and it was used for orbital space missions by NASA, the US Department of Defense, the European Space Agency, Japan, and Germany. The United States funded Shuttle development and operations except for the Spacelab modules used on D1, sL-J was partially funded by Japan
10.
Pegasus (rocket)
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The Pegasus is an air-launched rocket developed by Orbital ATK, formerly Orbital Sciences Corporation. Capable of carrying payloads of up to 443 kilograms into low Earth orbit, Pegasus first flew in 1990. The vehicle consists of three solid propellant stages and an optional monopropellant fourth stage, Pegasus is released from its carrier aircraft at approximately 40,000 ft, and its first stage has wings and a tail to provide lift and attitude control while in the atmosphere. The Pegasuss three Orion solid motors were developed by Hercules Aerospace specifically for the Pegasus launcher, additionally, wing and tail assemblies and a payload fairing were developed. Most of the Pegasus was designed by a led by Dr. Antonio Elias. The wing was designed by Burt Rutan, mass,18,500 kg,23,130 kg Length,16.9 m,17.6 m Diameter,1.27 m Wing span,6. Soon after development began, several government and military orders were placed, the first successful Pegasus launch occurred on April 5,1990 with NASA test pilot and former astronaut Gordon Fullerton in command of the carrier aircraft. Initially, a NASA-owned B-52 Stratofortress NB-008 served as the carrier aircraft, by 1994, Orbital had transitioned to their Stargazer L-1011, a converted airliner which was formerly owned by Air Canada. Initially, the Pegasus program had a failure rate, about 40% until 1997. It lost six different cargoes, starting with 7 microsatellites on its second attempt, included was at least partial failure of three out of four Space Test Experiment Platform efforts in the 1990s, on three separate launches. The Pegasus XL, introduced in 1994 has lengthened stages to increase payload performance, in the Pegasus XL, the first and second stages are lengthened into the Orion 50SXL and Orion 50XL, respectively. Higher stages are unchanged, flight operations are similar, the wing is strengthened slightly to handle the higher weight. The standard Pegasus has been discontinued, the Pegasus XL is still being produced, Pegasus has flown 42 missions in both configurations as of June 28,2013. Of these,37 were considered successful launches, dual payloads can be launched, with a canister that encloses the lower spacecraft and mounts the upper spacecraft. The upper spacecraft deploys, the canister opens, then the lower spacecraft separates from the third-stage adapter, since the fairing is unchanged for cost and aerodynamic reasons, each of the two payloads must be relatively compact. For their work in developing the rocket, the Pegasus team led by Dr. Antonio Elias was awarded the 1991 National Medal of Technology by U. S. President George H. W. Bush. The initial launch price offered was US$6 million, without options or a HAPS maneuvering stage, with the enlargement to Pegasus XL and the associated improvements to the vehicle, baseline prices increased. In addition, customers usually purchase additional services, such as testing, design and analysis
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.
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