Titan 34D

The Titan 34D was an American expendable launch vehicle derived from the Titan III and used to launch satellites for military applications. Its first and second stages were stretched and it flew with more powerful UA1206 solid motors. A choice of upper stages was offered, including the Inertial Upper Stage, the Transfer Orbit Stage and the Transtage, and it could lift 14,515 kg to low Earth orbit and 5,000 kg to geostationary transfer orbit. Its first flight was on 30 October 1982, carrying two DSCS defense communications satellites, and fifteen launches in all were made from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral and Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg, three of which failed. Two of those failures were the loss of a KH-11 satellite on 34D-7 in August 1985 and the explosion of 34D-9 on its pad in April 1986 while carrying the last KH-9 satellite.