The Titan Missile Museum

Visiting the Top Secret Titan Missile Museum

4 Comments / / Arizona

South of Tucson, in an empty desert, the United States dug a hole in the ground to protect a Titan Missile. This costly hole is now home to the Titan Missile Museum. Almost seventy years later, the previously empty desert is occupied by numerous cities, and the retired missile is on display inside the museum.

About missiles and rockets

The terms missile and rocket are often used interchangeably. All big missies have rocket engines. A missile refers to the projectile, while a rocket relates to the engine. Not all rockets are missiles. Rockets, not missiles, deliver satellites into orbit. When the term missile is used, the rocket is intended to create damage.

This is the main rocket engine mounted on a stand outside the Titan Missile Museum.
This is a Titan missile (stage 1) LR87 rocket engine mounted on a stand outside the Titan Missile Museum. This engine created 430,000 pounds of thrust, equal to eight engines mounted on a Boeing 747. During its two-and-a-half-minute burn time, the engine consumed 25,000 gallons of fuel. The fuel and oxidizer are mixed in the narrow white section where the mixture ignites. The burning mixture then expands in the cone on the right side of the picture, creating thrust.

To further explain, rockets sometimes have solid-fuel engines, and others have liquid-fuel engines. Titan II missiles had liquid-fuel engines. The space shuttle (a rocket space plane with two solid-fuel rockets) had a combination of solid-fuel booster rockets and a huge fuel tank. The biggest part of the space shuttle was the fuel tank.

Underground missile silos

This entire effort was part of the nuclear defense program. The reason the missile silos were underground was to protect them during a nuclear attack so that they could still operate after a nearby nuclear explosion. There were 54 Titan underground missile silos scattered around the country. The plan was that any of these missiles could destroy an entire city. The missiles in these silos have never been fired during a war; the only flights by the Titan missiles were tests. Better missiles eventually replaced all the Titan missiles, and these better missiles made these Titan missile silos obsolete.

Drawing of the underground bunker and Titan Missile Silo.
Drawing of the underground bunker and Titan Missile Silo. The left module contains the control room. The right module is the missile silo capped by the blast-proof door. The only regular access to the missile silo was a small door on the surface above the stairs. The control room was manned and ready for launch at a moment’s notice 24 hours a day for 24 years.

ICBM Program

The Titan missile is part of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Program. The tactic was developed after the German V2 rocket program was created during World War II. The V2 rocket went to the edge of space and could travel 200 miles. The definition of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a rocket that can go more than 3400 hundred miles from one continent to another.

The Soviet Union fielded the first ICBM in 1953. This missile was the R-7 Semyorka, designed to carry the Soviet hydrogen bomb. This rocket proved powerful enough to achieve earth orbit, and most famously, it carried the Sputnik satellite into space.

Photograph of a test launch of a Titan Missile from the silo.
Photograph of a test launch of a Titan Missile from the silo. The exhaust gas is diverted out the side of the silo.

The first United States ICBM was the Atlas missile. It wasn’t until 1959 that the first Atlas missile launch was successful. The three-stage Atlas missile was quickly replaced with the far-advanced two-stage Titan missile. The Atlas missile required hours to prepare for launch, while the Titan missile could be ready to launch in minutes.

In these two cones, Liquid hydrazine rocket fuel and an oxidizer are mixed to create the combustion of the rocket fuel.
In these two cones, liquid hydrazine rocket fuel and a tetroxide are mixed to create combustion. Combining these two chemicals in the rocket engine spontaneously combusts, creating thrust.

Ballistic

The term ballistic describes missiles that, when shot, follow a path without course correction to the target. This describes the German V-2 rocket and all ICBMs after that. By the time the Titan missile was fielded, the term ballistic didn’t apply because course corrections were made after the initial launch. The thruster pictured below makes the final course correction. After that course correction, the missile is ballistic.

This is a course correction thruster used after the Titan missile left the atmosphere and the second-stage rocket burned out.
This course correction thruster was used after the Titan missile left the atmosphere and the second-stage rocket burned out. The internal navigation unit activates the thruster and makes final corrections toward the target. Once this thruster no longer influences the missile’s trajectory, the re-entry vehicle ballistically continues to the target.

Fire and forget

Once launched, ICBMs don’t require any ground control action like a bullet. Everything on an ICBM is automatic and contained in the missile. After launch, the missile will either hit the target or not hit the target.

One big bomb

One giant bomb describes the design of both the Atlas and Titan Missile programs. Both of these missiles had the standard design of only carrying one warhead. The Titan Missile carried the largest single warhead ever created by the United States. The Titan launched a nine-megaton nuclear warhead. The Titan Missile was replaced with the Minuteman Missiles, with each missile carrying multiple (smaller) warheads. Each of the multiple warheads could be targeted at different locations. When talking about warhead size, small is a relative term; a small nuclear warhead can destroy a city.

This vehicle carried the re-entry vehicle. Inside this cone was the nine-kiloton bomb warhead.
This vehicle carried the re-entry vehicle. Inside this cone was the nine-kiloton bomb warhead. The re-entry vehicle protected the warhead from damage when returning to the atmosphere. It was the last part to be installed when assembling the missile. Once the warhead was on the missile, the only maintenance that needed to be done was fueling it.

Manned Space flight

The Mercury and Gemini programs for manned space flight used these rockets and this rocket technology as part of the manned space flight programs. The Titan II rocket in the Titan Missile Museum is the same model rocket that carried the Gemini space capsules into space. The obvious difference was that the Gemini spaceflight program didn’t launch from an underground silo, and the space capsule replaced the warhead. Before seeing the rocket, I didn’t know that the Titan II missile was the same rocket that carried the Gemini capsule, but as soon as I saw it, it was the same rocket.

At the top of the Titan missile, there is currently a glass dome to let in light.
At the top of the Titan missile, at the Titan Missile Museum, is a glass dome that lets in light. Everything below the thruster nozzles in this picture was jettisoned after the missile exited the atmosphere, and stages 1 and 2, comprising fuel tanks and rocket motors, were discarded. Once the course correction was made, everything below the black re-entry vehicle was discarded.

Missiles converted to rockets.

NASA adapted Titan and Atlas missiles and used them as rockets. The first two Mercury space launches were made on Redstone rockets. The following four Mercury missions were on converted Atlas rockets. All twelve flights were made on modified Titan II rockets in the Gemini Program. Two launches were unmanned, and the following ten missions were manned.

This old black and white photo shows a Titan missile rocket motor suspended in the silo.
This old black and white photo shows a Titan missile rocket motor suspended in the silo.

After the Titan missile program ended, many of the Titan II missiles were converted to deliver satellites into orbit, and others were converted to be used as museum displays. Titan II missiles were launched from Florida and California, delivering military satellites into orbit. The Titan III rockets were modified Titan II designs, some with solid rocket boosters and higher-power second stages.

At the bottom of the missile silo, this shape deflected the hot exhaust gasses from the Titan missile away from the missle silo.
At the bottom of the missile silo, this shape deflected the hot exhaust gasses from the Titan missile away from the missile silo.

Air Force Facility Missile Site 8  // Titan II ICBM Site 571-7

Air Force Facility Missile Site 8  // Titan II ICBM Site 571-7 is now the Titan Missile Museum. It is located in Green Valley, Arizona. The 54 missiles in the Titan II ICBM program were located in sites scattered in Arizona, Arkansas, and Kansas. The last Titan missile site was deactivated in 1987.

Liquid hydrazine rocket fuel for the Titan missile.
Liquid hydrazine rocket fuel for the Titan missile.

How the Titan missile program worked

One (or more than one) of the 54 Titan missiles was armed and fueled, ready for launch at all times for 24 years. The missile’s fuel was liquid hydrazine, and a separate container contained liquid tetroxide. When the hydrazine (fuel) and tetroxide (oxygen) combined, this created fire and thrust. Once the maintenance crew fueled the missile, it was ready for flight.

Liquid hydrazine refueling crew exposure suits at the Titan Missile Museum.
These space suits were used to fuel with liquid hydrazine. They protected the refueling crew from exposure during the refueling process. The suits are on display at the Titan Missile Museum. The discoloration on these suits was where they were patched after contacting the fuel.

Once the missile was fueled, the control room access door was shut and locked from the inside. During shift changes, the new crew would arrive precisely on time, or they were not allowed entry into the silo. Any early arrival or delay of the arrival of the relief crew was assumed to be an attack on the missile silo. The crew inside the silo would not open the doors, and once closed from the inside, they could only be opened from the inside. Given the size of the doors and locks, entering from the outside would require days or maybe even weeks to break into a silo.

Between the access ladder and the missile silo, ths long corridor and blast doors shielded the launch crew from the missile silo.
Between the access ladder and the missile silo, this long corridor and blast doors shielded the launch crew from the missile silo.

Each Titan missile was programmed with three targets. If a missile launch were ordered, the launch order would specify which of the three targets the launch crew would select. The launch crew didn’t know the missile’s destination; it was one of the three pre-programmed flight profiles.

Titan Missile Museum

The Titan Missile Museum site in Green Valley, Arizona, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994. The nonprofit Arizona Aerospace Foundation operates the Titan Missile Museum. The Arizona Aerospace Foundation also operates the Pima County Aerospace Museum.

The launch keys were in the top section of this file cabinet. There are two simple locks on the cabinet. One for each of the two crewmen that are required to launch the missile.
The launch keys were in the top section of this file cabinet. The cabinet had two simple locks, one for each of the two crewmen required to launch the missile. Each keyhole was far enough apart that one person couldn’t operate both keys simultaneously to initiate the launch sequence.

Inside the museum is a preserved and unfueled and unarmed Titan II rocket enclosed in the silo with the silo blast door half open to prove to the world that the missile site is not operational. The blast door is blocked from opening any further, proving that the missile silo is not operational. Over the top of the now half-open silo is a glass greenhouse structure to prevent rain and weather from entering.

These displays and launch stations have the same equipment that was in the launch control room for a NASA Gemini space launch.
These displays and launch stations have the same equipment in the launch control room for a NASA Gemini space launch.

The Titan Missile Museum is the only intact Titan II complex open to the public. Some of the 54 silos were destroyed or filled in, others were sold as scrap, and a few are on private property.

The launch control room in the control center inside the Titan Missile silo.
The launch control room is in the control center inside the Titan Missile silo.

The museum contains an above-ground visitors center and three below-ground facility portions. The below-ground parts of the museum are intact, and each chamber’s original equipment is on display for visitors.

Our visit

We enjoyed visiting the Titan Missile Museum and learning about the program’s history. There is an advanced tour that I would like to take someday. The advanced tour explores nearly every corner of the missile silo and complex.

Video

This video was produced by the Martin company (Later Martin-Marietta and even later Lockheed Martin) in the early 1960s and was instrumental in creating the Titan Missile system.

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Links

Titan Missile Museum

Arizona Aerospace Foundation

National Park Service about the Atlas Missile

National Park Service about the Titan Missile

National Park Service about the Minuteman Missile

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

Our visit to the site of the first nuclear explosion

Our visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum

Our visit to the Pima Air & Space Museum

Our visit to a Space Launch at Cape Canaveral & Kennedy Space Center

Our visit to Classic Rotors, a One-of-a-Kind helicopter (rescue) museum

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4 thoughts on “Visiting the Top Secret Titan Missile Museum”

    1. Scott

      I am happy all the real details are still Top Secret. I am actually amazed that we were allowed to tour a decommissioned silo. Just try to get a tour of a ballistic missile submarine. I hope it never happens.

      Reply
  2. Laura

    That site was one of the coolest places we visited from our years on the road. We just loved the whole experience – it was the perfect mix of science, history, and apocalyptic horror movie material. I’m glad you guys enjoyed it too. If you do get the chance to do the full length tour, it’s definitely interesting. Stay well!

    Reply

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