Up close and personal with a giant Titan nuclear missile
The Titan Missile Museum is a fascinating look inside one of the Cold War’s greatest terrors: the nuclear missile silo. Take a step back in time with this incredible photo tour.
Titan Missile Museum
Just south of Tucson, Arizona, is the Titan Missile Museum, the only Titan ICBM silo you can tour.
For the full story, check out Apocalypse then: Inside the chilling Titan Missile Museum
Gated
Like when it was an active installation, you can't just wander onto the base.
Fences and security
Despite elaborate security measures, the military didn't foresee people on foot as much of a threat.
Entrance
After buying your ticket, you head onto the base itself.
Down into history
If you're able, the normal entrance is down a few dozen stairs.
Steel and concrete
There's a particular smell to military bases: steel, concrete and hydraulic fluid.
Vertigo
You can see several flights down through the grating.
My, what big doors you have
While the security on the surface was OK, down here things get serious.
Doors and doors
Multiple massive steel doors secure the facility. Or at least, they used to.
Secured
Now that is a serious door bolt.
Cableway
There are two directions to go. One shorter passage goes to the Launch Control Center. The other goes to the missile.
Launch Control Center
The Launch Control Center is a slice out of time. Above here is the living quarters.
Owner's manual
Want to launch an ICBM? There's a manual for that.
Console
It's incredible to think what was possible with so little computing power.
Banks of buttons
This bank of instruments could be straight out of a retro sci-fi movie or a Fallout game.
Stairs
Note the curve of the ceiling. This section of the facility is circular, with a domed ceiling for strength.
Bunkmates
Fairly spartan living quarters for the four-man crew.
Kitchen
A normal-looking kitchen, except for the curved walls.
SAC
I wonder if Staff Sergeant Prievo has been back here.
Suit up
Back down the corridor now, toward the missile.
Hazards
Rocket fuel isn't exactly human-friendly.
Cableway
The main corridor to the missile, allowing access and carrying the cables required to control and launch the missile.
Junctions
Joints allowed flexing of the cableway in case of a nearby nuclear attack.
Beyond the door
Not dramatic at all.
Titan II
The missile! Well, the top part anyway.
Ready for launch
Retractable platforms allowed access to every part of the missile.
My, you're a tall one
Though 103 feet (31.4m) tall, the Titan II is only 10 feet (3m) wide.
Fast launch
Unlike its predecessor, the Titan II could be stored with its oxidizer fuel already onboard, so it could be ready to launch in under a minute.
Antiroom
The basic tour ends here, with views of the missile about two-thirds of the way up. The more advanced tours continue the exploration.
Level 7
A tiny elevator drops us down to level 7, the base of the missile.
Underneath
The base of a Titan II missile.
Long way up
That's sunlight from the glass-covered viewing area.
Missing motors
The Stage 1 motors would have been here; you can see the platform cut out to fit around them and allow access. We'll see the Stage 1 engine later.
Into the abyss
This is the view down, below the platform. It's a concrete wedge, forcing the rocket exhaust into two tunnels that channel it out and then up, parallel to the silo, and eventually out into the atmosphere.
Cableway beauty
I'm sure aesthetics weren't on the engineer's minds when designing this place, but how cool does this look?
Antennas
There were multiple antennas, some permanently mounted on the surface, and others that would telescope up out of the ground in case the others were destroyed.
'Tipsies'
AN/TPS-9, or "tipsies" was a motion-sensing Doppler radar surveillance system.
Roof
The 760-ton (700 metric ton) silo door could be opened in 20 seconds. Now it is permanently half open to show that the silo has been decommissioned.
Titan from above
The open part of the silo is covered in glass, and it offers a unique view.
Stage 1
The LR-87 had twin motors, together creating 430,000 pounds of thrust (1,900 kN). It consumed 170 gallons (640 liters) of fuel per second.
This would have been hanging off the bottom of the missile, as seen in the earlier slide.
Colander
The reaction of the propellant and oxidizer is hypergolic, which means it ignites when combined without a spark. You wouldn't want to be standing here at the business end when that happens.
Stage 2
After the first stage ran out of fuel, it was jettisoned and the second stage, seen here, took over. It was less powerful, 100,000 pounds of thrust (445 kN), but burned for 15 percent longer, about 3 minutes. This pushed the Titan II to about 200 miles above the Earth.
Desert desolation?
Though it looks like it's in the middle of nowhere, Tucson is only about 20 minutes away and the town of Green Valley is right down the hill.
Reentry
A better idea of scale. That's the nose cone/reentry vehicle. To the right, about the size of a refrigerator, is a scale model of the bomb.
For the full story, check out Apocalypse then: Inside the chilling Titan Missile Museum.