We reached into our video archives and pulled out two rocket launches to show you. Titan IV is the largest unmanned space booster used by the U.S. Air Force to carry payloads as big as the ones the space shuttle carries.
On September 8, 2003, Communications Concepts, Inc. broadcast the launch of the massive Titan IV as it blasted off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 40. The day’s payload was a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The model rocket was the Titan IV-B, the final model of the now retired Titan program, which was the largest, most powerful, heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle in the United States at the time. This mammoth rocket was as tall as a 20-story building and, with the solid rocket boosters and fuel, weighed about 940,000 kilograms (2 million pounds). In the video, you can see the sheer power of the Titan as the shot, captured from a remote camera less than 500 feet from the launch pad, fills with white just after liftoff.
