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|stagedata = }} 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 enabled several high-profile NASA missions, including the Voyager and Viking planetary probes, and the joint West German-US Helios spacecraft. All seven launches were conducted from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral. ==Development== In 1967, NASA began considering the possibility of combining the massive Titan III booster and Centaur high-energy upper stage to create what was at the time the most powerful launch vehicle for planetary exploration. With over three times the payload capacity of the Atlas-Centaur, Titan IIIE would be able to launch ambitious robotic spacecraft missions planned for the 1970s. NASA's Lewis Research Center (now the Glenn Research Center) was given the task of integrating Titan with Centaur, which required a number of modifications to accommodate the more powerful booster. The most obvious change was enclosing Centaur in a large shroud that protected the stage and the payload during ascent. This enabled the use of improved insulation on Centaur, which increased coast time in orbit from 30 minutes when launched on Atlas to over 5 hours on the Titan IIIE. Since Centaur was wider than the Titan's core stage, a tapering interface was required. This interface had to be insulated to prevent boiloff of Centaur's cryogenic propellants, since Titan used hypergolic propellants stored at ambient temperature, while Atlas used liquid oxygen. The Centaur stage also contained the guidance computer for the entire launch vehicle. 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Titan IIIE」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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